The Falconer: A Victorian Silver Equestrian Sculpture, Hunt & Roskell, London, 1847

Equestrian hawking and falconry subjects in silver centerpieces, race cups, etc. from the top London goldsmiths were made on a number of occasions from the late 1830's through the 1860's. Other examples include the hawking party centerpiece, R. & S. Garrard & Co., London, 1853 (Sotheby’s New York, May 5, 2011, lot 100); a female falconer centerpiece, Hunt & Roskell, London, 1854 (Sotheby’s New York, October 20, 2021, lot 134); and the Lord Lilford falconry centerpiece by Hunt & Roskell, London, 1851.

The present lot is possibly designed and modeled by Alfred Brown. Born about 1825 in St. Giles, Cripplegate, he was the son of a brazier, but studied at the Royal Academy schools in the mid-1840s, winning awards in 1844 and 1845. Between 1845 and 1855 he exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, and worked extensively for Hunt & Roskell; he is listed at their factory address from 1847 to 1855. His work for Hunt & Roskell listed in 1862 displayed extensive human and animal figural work, including three candelabra and two groups for the Goldsmiths’ Company, three Goodwood Cups and an Ascot Cup, a group of stags which one review thought was the best piece in the company’s display, and almost a dozen figural and allegorical “Testimonials” for the great, powerful, charitable, and just plain wealthy of mid-Victorian Britain.

Brown was listed as a “moulder” in the census of 1851 but an “artist-sculptor” by 1861. He is still listed as a sculptor in 1871, living in Chelsea, but by 1881 he was listed without a profession and as being of “unsound mind.” John Culme has found him listed in 1891 as a “gentleman” and still of unsound mind, near Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey, and it was here that he died in 1893.

The inscriptions refer to Thomas George Lyon-Bowes, 10th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, son and heir of Thomas George Lyon-Bowes, b.1822, representative peer (Scotland) 1852-65, m. in 1850 Charlotte Maria, 1st daughter of William Keppel, 6th Viscount Barrington of Ardglass. He died in 1865 at Glamis Castle. Glamis Castle was the family home of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and has been in the Lyon family, Earls of Strathmore since the 14^th century.

Duke Adolphe of Nassau 1817-1905,moved in 1841 into the new city palace of Weisbaden, m. in 1845 Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna who died in childbirth the following year. In 1866, Nassau was annexed by Prussia for which the Duke received substantial compensation. In 1890, he became Grand Duke of Luxemburg after the male line of Orange-Nassau became extinct.

The Duke of Nassau was a regular customer of Hunt & Roskell. At the Great Exhibition of 1851, Hunt & Roskell exhibited the following among their display:

‘25. A candelabrum, Louis XIVth style. Subject, St. George and the Dragon. The property of H.R.H. the Duke of Nassau.

‘26-29. Four candelabra, with hunting subjects. The property of H.R.H. the Duke of Nassau.’

(Official Catalogue, class 23, no. 97, p. 687)

Like Garrard’s and other exhibitors at the Great Exhibition, Hunt & Roskell ’s exhibit was mostly comprised of objects from their factory which had been made up to ten or fifteen years before and lent by the then owners.

In the same year that this sculpture was made, the newspapers noted: ‘His Royal Highness the reigning Duke of Nassau, accompanied by his suite, honoured the establishment of Messrs. Hunt and Roskell with a visit yesterday.’ (The Morning Advertiser, London, Wednesday, 4 August 1847, p. 2f)