The George II sugar caster with the Exeter hall-marks for 1728, made by Richard Freeman, is unique. Its beautifully shaped body is exquisitely suited to the technique of the metal-worker. The plain band at base and the graduated foot carry out the symmetrical form, and help to give effect to the cover with its delightful pierced ornament. It will be observed that this pierced design is exactly in keeping with the reticence of the rest of the piece, and the baluster knob, almost acorn-like in form, completes a very fine piece of craftsmanship.
The progress in form from the days of George II to the end of the century is shown in the group illustrated on page 277. These casters, as will be noticed, are all circular in body, and do not include geometric forms. The George II example (1747) was the fixed type from George I to the early years of George III. A Scottish example of a sugar caster (illustrated p. 317), having the Edinburgh hall-marks for 1746, shows this established form. At the latter end of the reign of George II and in the early years of George III, from 1760, it is noticeable that the body swells in bulbous form, increasing in height from the foot. The next example (1771) shows the new top, pear-shaped; the swelling lower part of the body is still pronounced and the foot is taller, as in the cream-jugs of the period. In both these George III examples the cover is surmounted by a pine-cone knob.
2. The fixed type from George I to early George III.
3. The swelling body increasing in height from foot; the pine-cone top.
4. The new pear-shaped top. The swelling lower part of body leaving foot as in cream-jugs of the same period.
(_By courtesy of Messrs. Elkington & Co._)]
[Illustration: EARLY GEORGE III CENTREPIECE 1761.
Height, highest part, 14¹/₂ in. Diameter 20¹/₂ in.]
[Illustration: EARLY GEORGE III CENTREPIECE. _c._ 1775.
(_By courtesy of Messrs. Crichton Brothers._)]
The caster never attempted to be other than reticent. It was like a poor relation at the table in company with the magnificence of the centre-piece. The pierced work in subdued ornament pales before the elaboration in such a centre-piece as that illustrated on page 279, with the London hall-marks for 1761. The basket is of elaborate and graceful form, and the eight branching candlesticks mark it as a sumptuous specimen. The feet are elaborate and in rococo style. It belongs to the early years of George III, of Garrick, of Macklin, and of Foote. It was contemporary with the enormous head-dresses, the subject of so many caricatures, which followed the indecorous hoop-petticoats of the dissolute days of George II. Paste and plaster and powder raised these head ornaments to a superstructure representing chariots, and a _fureur des cabriolets_, related by Horace Walpole. Men had them painted on their waistcoats, and women stuck a one-horse post-chaise on the top of their elaborate head-dress, which said head-dress was not changed for some weeks. Medical men of the day speak of this in terms which we will not introduce here. Sir Joshua Reynolds had commenced to paint his immortal portraits, Handel had found congenial soil under the House of Hanover to settle here, providing satirists with subjects as to his gluttonous habits, and producing music that has become English to those who like oratorio. Thomas Chippendale had published his _Director_ in 1754, with its wonderful designs; and Robert Adam, in 1758, had put his screen and gateway across the Admiralty in Whitehall, and was translating dull London streets into classic style. These were the nights at the “Turk’s Head” with Dr. Johnson, the supporter of the Royal House, the upholder of purity and piety in an impure and irreligious age, Burke with his flashing conversation, and Goldsmith and David Garrick, and a circle of men who counted for more than the macaronis and the fops of Pall Mall and St. James’s Street. Wealth was pouring into the country from India, and with it came rapidly acquired habits of luxury--habits that quickly reflected themselves in the furniture and domestic appurtenances. This silver centre-piece of 1761, therefore, tells the story of these days of the eighteenth century, “remarkable for the great industrial revolution, which gradually transformed England from an agricultural to a manufacturing country, depending for food supplies on foreign countries.”