| INDEX | ALL SILVER |
| DESCRIPTION | Superb antique English Georgian solid sterling silver lemon strainer with a full set of hallmarks correct for the period.
Hallmarking was done before piercing and final finishing so some marks are partly obscured and some of those within the bowl are partly rubbed.
Here we have within the bowl leopard's head crowned (clear but a little rubbed), lion passant guardant 1739-56 series (clear), Edward Aldridge I mark from 1744 (pierced and rubbed), date
letter 'i' (mostly pierced and rubbed but what remains conforms to the 1744 'i' punch). A rare and special treat is the clear lion passant to beneath both handles together with partial but
readable maker's to both as well. This is the rarely seen (from this period) full set.
When is a lemon strainer an orange strainer? When it is used for oranges. Pre-Georgian orange juice was strained for use at table with dishes such as fish. These strainers were large. Smaller strainers such as this were employed for the popular drink of orange juice with claret. First half of the 18th century saw the popularity of lemon juice in punch so the orange strainer became a lemon strainer. From 1750 orange juice began to be more fashionable than lemon juice in your punch so the lemon strainer became an orange strainer once again until about 1800 when there was a huge improvement in the quality of imported wine and all punches fell out of fashion and these items were no longer made in any significant quantity. |
| SILVERSMITH | Edward Aldridge I (Grimwade 3533) a well respected maker of strainers. Although the smallworkers book 1739-58 is still lost Edward is known to have registered several similar but discernibly different marks during this period and this mark of his conforms to some shells of 1744. |
| DATE or HALLMARK | 1744 |
| ASSAY OFFICE | London |
| WEIGHT in GRAMS | 114 |
| LENGTH | 8 ¾", 220mm |
| SILVER STANDARD | ·925 sterling silver |
| CONDITION | excellent, thick metal not thinned by polishing, no repairs, no engraving, no erasure, couple of minor bumps and tiny scratches, one of the finest examples available to mankind today |
select any image to enlarge
| SOLD |
| Price £398 |
| item number m8518 |
| Available Sterling Silver Lemon Strainers |
| email questions to silfren@btinternet.com
telephone 07563 011924 experts available 24 hours every day |