Details
Each plain circular with beaded rims, the borders slightly engraved with a coat-of-arms, the majority further engraved on undersides with number and scratchweight, marked on undersides
914 in. (23.5 cm.) diameter
214 oz. (6,657 gr.)
Provenance
Sir Mark Wood 1st Bt. (1750-1829), of Gatton, co. Surrey, presumably by descent to his son,
Sir Mark Wood 2nd Bt. (1794–1837).
The Collection of the Rothschild family.
By descent to the present owners.
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Lot Essay

The arms are those of Wood impaling Dashwood for Mark Wood (1750-1829), later created 1st Baronet of Gatton, co Surrey, and his wife Rachel Wood (d.1802), daughter of Robert Dashwood, of Vellow Wood, co. Somerset, whom he married in Calcutta on 17 May 1786.

SIR MARK WOOD 1ST BT.
Mark Wood was an East India Company army office, military engineer and nabob. He was born into an ancient Scottish family, the Woods of Largo. He entered the service of the East India at the age of twenty, serving first in Madras and then in Bengal. He surveyed the Hooghly River and the countryside around Calcutta. He was made the chief engineer in Bengal in 1788. Ill health led to his return to England in 1793, when he purchased the Piercefield estate in Monmouthshire, using part of the great wealth he had acquired whilst serving in India, working as an architect outside his service to the East India Company and no doubt trading on his own account.

He entered politics and was elected in 1794. On selling his Welsh estate in 1800 he bought Gatton Park in Surrey, which came with 2,000 acres and seven electors who returned two Member of Parliament. He strongly purported the strategic importance of the island of Malta and campaigned for its acquisition by the British government. He also sought high office in India as a regional governor, although this came to nothing, he was made a baronet in 1808. He retired from the House of Commons in 1818 and died in 1829 at his house on Pall Mall following a short illness. He was succeeded by his son, also Mark.

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