Footed Salver

1678/79

Salvers were used in various ways—they held food, beverages, or gentlemen’s scented gloves in the dressing room. The arms engraved on this salver are those of Samuel Pepys, the civil servant and diarist who recorded everyday life in London in the 1660s. Pepys owned a large collection of silver plate, a sign of his status and wealth. After a dinner party at his home, he wrote with satisfaction: “Lord! to see with what envy they looked upon all my fine plate was pleasant.”

Medium	silver gilt
Dimensions	2 5/8 x 12 3/8 x 12 3/8 in. (6.7 x 31.4 x 31.4 cm) Base diameter: 4 15/16 in. (12.5 cm) Troy weight: 31.9 toz (992.2 g)
Object Number	1955.298
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Maker's mark I (?) C in dotted circle, Footed Salver, 1678/79, silver gilt. Clark Art Institute, 1955.298

Select Bibliography

British Antique Dealers' Association. Art Treasures Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. London: British Antique Dealers' Association, 1932. Robert Sterling Clark Art Institute. Robert Sterling Clark Art Institute Presents an Exhibition of Silver of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Robert Sterling Clark Art Institute, 1951. Wildenstein & Company. An Exhibition of Treasures from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Paintings, drawings & rare silver, for the benefit of the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, inc. (CRIA). Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Company, 1967. Jourdain, M. "The Pepys Cockerell Collection of Relics of Samuel Pepys." Country Life 61 (4 June 1927): 92124. Anonymous. "Pepys' Relics in Sotheby Sale." Art News 29 (28 February 1931). Anonymous. "Pepys' Heirlooms Fetch £9,000." Art News 29 (25 April 1931): 4. Carter, A. C. R. "Forthcoming SalesFamous Pepys Relics at Sotheby's: Silver and Portraits." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 58, no. 336 (March 1931): xxxv-xxxvi. Rutter, Frank. "Auction Sales: London." International Studio 99 (May 1931). Anonymous. "In the Saleroom." Connoisseur 87 (May 1931): 337–40. Comstock, Helen. "English Silver in the Robert S. Clark Collection at Williamstown, Mass." Connoisseur Year Book (1959): 38–44. Wees, Beth Carver. English, Irish, and Scottish Silver at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997.

Provenance

Samuel Pepys; his nephew and heir, John Jackson; his daughter Frances Jackson Cockerell; her son Samuel Pepys Cockerell (1754-1827); by descent to John Pepys Cockerell, sale Sotheby's, London, 1 April 1931, lot 3; bought Crichton Brothers, London; with Peter Guille, Ltd., New York; sold to Robert Sterling Clark, invoice paid 11 July 1946.