A pair of George III Serving Platters, London, 1794, Robert Sharp.

A pair of George III Serving Platters, London, 1794, Robert Sharp.

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Reference

120742

The Dishes are of exceptional quality and weight, as one would expect from this maker. Each is oval in form with a raised rim decorated with gadrooning. The border is engraved on on side with an Armorial and on the other side with a double Crest.



The Arms are those of Dunn Gardner impaling Pigott, for John Dunn Gardner and his second wife Ada Pigott, daughter of William Pigott of Dullingham Manor, Newmarket, Cambridgeshire (granddaughter of Sir George Pigott, 1st Baronet of Knapton, Queens County.



John Dunn Gardner was a noted bibliophile and occasional commentator on political and economic matters. He was conservative MP for Bodmin and was JP, Deputy Lieutenant and then High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.



More significantly, he was connected with one of the most celebrated aristocratic scandals of the 19th century. His mother was Sarah Dunn Gardner ( 1786-1858 ), daughter of William Dunn Garnder. Sarah Dunn Gardner married George Towshend , later 3rd Marquess of Townshend in 1807, but left him after only a year and petitioned for annulment on grounds of non-consumation. She then eloped with a brewer, John Margetts, to whom she contracted a bigamous marriage in Gretna Green - as her first marriage was never dissolved !!



Length: 14.75 inches

Width: 10.45 inches

Weight: 77oz the pair

Year

1794

Country

London

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