In her article, 'The Legacy of a Fantastical Scot' (The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, February 1961, pp. 172-180), Jessie McNab includes a contemporary account of how the Monteith bowl came to be known as such. Although penned in December 1683 by the antiquary Anthony à Wood, it was not until his manuscript was published in 1894 that the explanation became widely known:
'This yeare in the summer t.mes came up,' Wood wrote, 'a vessel or bason notched at the brims to let drinking glasses hang there by the foot so that the body or drinking place might hang in the water to coole them. Such a bason was called a 'Monteigh,' from a fantastical Scot called ''Monsieur Monteigh' [or Menteith], who at that t.mes or a little before wore the bott.mes of his cloake or coate so notched UUUU.' (Andrew Clark, The Life and t.mes s of Anthony Wood, antiquary, of Oxford, 1632-1695, as described by Himself, Oxford, 1894, p. 84)
In fact, Monteith (otherwise Monteth, Monteigh or Menteith) as a name for such bowls seems to have been in use from the start. As early as 1708 The Art of Cookery: A Poem In Imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry, by the author of a Tale of a Tub (the London-born writer, William King (1663-1712)), gave us the following:
What Lord of old would bid his Cook prepare
Mango's, Potargo, Champignons, Caveare?
Or would our Thrum-cap'd Ancestors find Fault
For want of Sugar Tongues, or Spoons for Salt.
New things produce new Words, and thus Monteth
Has by one Vessel sav'd his Name from Death.
King was right; Monteith's name has been immortalised, forever linked with this type of imposing silver bowl. In the mid 18th century several (probably already 50 or 60 years old) are recorded which were thought suitable as gifts to public figures. In 1746 Francis Holburne, commander of the Argyll man-of-war, was presented with 'a handsome Silver Monteth, being a Present to him from the Merchants of Liverpool, for his extraordinary Care of their Ships that came under his Convoy from Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands.' (The Newcastle Courant, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Saturday, 6 September 1746, p. 2c) And the following year, 'A large silver monteth of curious workmanship, is presented to Sir Peter Warren,) by the inhabitants of Barbadoes, in acknowledgement of his services in the West-Indies.' A later authority describes this reward as 'a gorgeous silver monteith, or punch-bowl.' (The London Magazine: or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, Dublin, September, 1747, p. 385; Anna Alice Chapin, Greenwich Village, New York, 1917, p. 98)
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when the market in second-hand and antique silver began to flourish, monteiths were among that class of impressive old plate which attracted special attention. Edward Farrell and Kensington Lewis (ever the eccentrics!) went one step further in 1820 by creating for their chief cust.mes r, H.R.H. The Duke of York a new 'superb [silver-gilt] Monteth, round which is represented Alexander's Battle of the Granicus,' (The Morning Chronicle, London, Tuesday, 20 March 1827, p. 4c)
By the t.mes D. & J. Wellby sold the monteith in the present lot, silver bowls in various sizes, some exact replicas of late 17th century originals, were much in vogue, either intended for their original use or as rose bowls. Since the 1870s their rise in popularity exactly matched the decrease in popularity of the silver centrepiece; whereas the one was an elegant new addiction to the dining table or sideboard, the other had become an outdated, cluttering nuisance. Nothing could better exemplify the fashionable new ornament than the 'two antique [style] punch bowls [made by Elkington & Co. Ltd.] in a handsome morocco case' which the Earl of Rosebery gave as a wedding present in 1893 to H.R.H. Princess Marie of Edinburgh. (The Illustrated London News, London, Saturday, 14 January 1893, p. 51)
D. & J. Wellby, diamond merchants, and wholesale jewellers and dealers in plate, long established at (18 &) 20 Garrick Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C., was founded in 1820, the first partners being Joseph Clements and John Wellby, trading as gold and silver refiners and dealers, 57 King Street, Soho. The partnership was dissolved on 6 August 1828 (The London Gazette, London, 15 August 1828, p. 1560a), after which Wellby continued alone on his own account. He died at the age of 77 on 19 September 1873. By then, since the early 1860s, the business was continued by his two sons, Daniel Wellby (1829-1909) and John Henry Wellby (1834-1917) as D. & J. Wellby. The firm was converted into a limited liability company in 1896/97, with various members of the Wellby family as directors. In 1902 they purchased the stock and goodwill of the noted jewellers, Phillips Brothers & Sons of Cockspur Street.
Not actual working silversmiths themselves, but rather retailers, D. & J. Wellby became well known for silver in antique styles, like this present bowl, which was made for them by various leading manufacturers, including Edward Barnard & Sons and C.J. Vander.