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Candlestick
Figural candlestick, pale yellow silver gilt, standing on a six-sided triangular base, supported by three acanthus-capped scroll feet, and ornamented with bound laurel swags, stems formed as a female classical figure, draped with floral garlands, and with arms aloft supporting an openwork acanthus bulb or calyx, with shaped circular drip-pan and foliate-chased vase-form socket, the base engraved with the arms of Williams-Wynn impaling Somerset, pendant from a ribbon bow, and within palm fronds, motto Nec Me Nemi Nisse Pigebit.
The candlestick is constructed in five sections, 1. the feet and base plate (platform cast in one piece, each foot two castings seamed at the centre); 2. the hollow figure, cast in two halves, with applied flower trails, fixed to the base with three bolts (one of the three knuts now missing), and partly obscuring the engraved armorials, 3. the calyx,(cut and chased from sheet silver) 4. the chased drip-pan, 5. the socket (cast in two pieces) which has a threaded rod at the end which passes through 3. and 4. to screw into the figure's head.
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.
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