Each of lozenge form with gadrooned rim, the conforming domed cover with scrolling ring handle, engraved in the centre of the dish with a coat-of-arms and on the cover with a coat-of-arms and two crests, marked under bases and on covers, with scratchweight 15"16 and 14"12 and inventory numbers n.1 and 2 under bases and with scratchweight 16"7 and 16"4 and inventory n.1 and 2 under covers
10⁵⁄₈ in. (27 cm.) long
60 oz. 8 dwt. (1,879 gr.)
The arms are those of Fane with Child in pretence, for John, 10th Earl of Westmorland K.G. (1759-1841) and his wife Sarah Anne (d.1793), only daughter and heir of the London banker Robert Child (1739-1782) of Osterley Park, Middlesex.

John, 10th Earl of Westmorland K.G. (1759-1841), probably commissioned following his appointment as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1790-1794.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 21 April 1998, lot 194.

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Lot Essay

THE WESTMORLAND AND CHILD ELOPEMENT
Sarah Anne Child had fallen in love aged eighteen with 'Rapid Westmorland', as the Earl was known. As John Hardy and Maurice Tomlin record in the guide to Osterley Park: 'Child, do you suppose that you were in love with a girl, and her father refused his consent to the union, what should you do?' 'Why! run away with her, to be sure!' the banker rashly replied. The young man took the advice, and in the small hours of Friday morning, the 17 May 1782, Sarah Anne stole away from her father's house, 38 Berkeley Square, and was soon with her lover in a post-chaise, bound for Gretna Green.

It was not long before her flight was discovered, and Mr. and Mrs. Child set out in pursuit, sending two men ahead on swift horses with orders to arrest the fleeing couple. As the horsemen drew level with his carriage, the Earl aimed his pistol at them, but hesitated to fire. 'Shoot, my Lord!' cried Sarah Anne, and the next moment one of Mr. Child's favourite hunters lay dead under his groom. The parents were meantime delayed by a strategem of the Earl's. Passing a detachment of the King's Dragoon Guards exercising on the road to the North, he had recognised the commander as an old friend and had begged him to slow down the pursuit.

When the Childs came up they found the road obstructed by troops and were forced to wait until the manoeuvre was completed. Soon after Baldock they gave up and turned back while the lovers sped on their way and were married in an ale house in Gretna Green the next day" (J. Hardy and M. Tomlin, Osterley Park House, London, 1985, pp. 99-100).

Although a reconciliation was effected with Sarah Anne's parents and the marriage ceremony was held over again in a church, it seems Child never got over the disappointment. Shortly before his death he made a new will in which he left Osterley, the country house which he had had extensively remodelled by Robert Adam, to the Westmorland's second son, thereby ensuring that future Earls of Westmorland would not inherit the Child estate.