Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Pot and cover, yellow silver gilt, round stepped foot, lobed and matted trumpet stem rising to a beaded knop, inverted pear-shaped body with a calyx of laurel leaves, embossed above with flowers and foliage within acanthus scrolls; domed cover with gadrooned rim, rising to a foliage finial naturalistically modelled in relief, and engraved with the arms of Williams-Wynn impaling Somerset, pendant from a ribbon bow, and within palm fronds.

This spectacular toilet service was given as a gift by Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn’s mother to her new daughter-in-law, Henrietta Somerset, in 1768. Silver toilet services, comprising a mirror, candlesticks and boxes for jewellery and patches, became a symbol of rank and high status from the 1660s. They were displayed on dressing tables with rich lace covers. Thomas Heming was principal goldsmith to the King, and this service is similar to the one he had made two years earlier for the Queen of Denmark.