Pair of Flagons, 1627 [Si154]
London, 1627; maker’s mark: R.S. with a heart (probably Robert Snow d. before October 1638)
Silver gilt: H. 29.5 cm, 14.1 cm, 1230 g and 1211 g
Both inscribed: Ex dono Dris: Nicholai Love Custodis / 1629 [The gift of Dr Nicholas Love Warden, 1629].
Engraved with the arms of Wykeham empaling Love.
The donor, Nicholas Love was a Scholar (1583), Headmaster (1601-13), and Warden (1613-30) of Winchester.
Mitchell (Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London) reproduces five variations of this maker’s mark, appearing on 18 pieces (not including the Winchester flagons), dated from 1617/18 to 1640/41. The only silversmith of these initials with an extensive trade over the period was Robert Snow, who was apprenticed to Simon Owen from 1606 to 1614. He had a busy workshop, taking on nine apprentices, and seems to have specialised mostly in church plate. A number of flagons are known, of similar size and design, for example one sold at Christie’s, 15 July 2020, lot. 220.
Literature: Philip Braithwaite, The Church Plate of Hampshire (London, 1909), pp. xviii, 365; Charles Oman, ‘The Winchester College Plate’, The Connoisseur (January, 1962), pp. 30-32 (illustrated).
Exhibited: Winchester Cathedral Treasury (one), 1968, 1969
Provenance: Given by Nicholas Love, 1627
Location: Treasury, Gallery 1
