Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Cup and cover, silver gilt, spreading foot supporting a vase-shaped body, applied girdle round the middle of the body, two bold double-scrolled handles, domed cover with bud finial; rocaille S-scroll motifs applied against a matted ground and strewn with berried foliage and grapevine on the lower half of the body, also to the foot and cover, the handles applied and chased with foliage, the body engraved on each side above the girdle with the later arms of William Lewis Hughes, Lord Dinorben of Kinmel Park.

Paul Crespin was a born into a Huguenot family that had probably settled in London during the mid 17th century. He set up his goldsmithing business in Soho in 1720, where he remained until 1759. This cup is very large and is ornamented entirely in the rococo manner. The arms of its original owner have been replaced with those of William Lewis Hughes (1767-1835) of Kinmel Park, Denbighshire. Hughes had a great fortune derived from Anglesey copper mines, and was created 1st Baron Dinorben in 1831. His acquisition of the cup is an interesting example of a revival of interest in the rococo during the Regency period.