Lot 826

1743 George II Silver Muffineer - Samuel Wood, London

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Lot 826
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1743 George II Silver Muffineer - Samuel Wood, London
1743 George II Silver Muffineer - Samuel Wood, London
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1743 George II Silver Muffineer - Samuel Wood, London

Estimate: $500 - $750

Current Bid: $250

(1 Bid)
by Artemis Fine Arts
July 30, 2026 8:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Northern Europe, United Kingdom, England, London, Georgian period, George II, mark of Samuel Wood, ca. 1743 CE. A baluster-form caster raised on a stepped, spreading circular foot, its polished body swelling to a generous curve before tapering to a molded girdle at the shoulder. The high domed cover is pierced and chased with a spiraling band of scrollwork, allowing sugar or spice to sift through in fine drifts, and is surmounted by a turned baluster finial. Wrought in sterling silver of high standard, the muffineer answers to the Georgian table's appetite for refinement, dusting muffins, fruit, or savories with equal ease. It bears a full set of London hallmarks: the leopard's head for the assay office, the lion passant for the sterling standard, the date letter H for 1743, and the maker's initials SW for Samuel Wood, struck to the underside of the foot, with the cover separately marked SW and lion passant. Size: 2.5" D x 6.5" H (6.3 cm D x 16.5 cm H); silver quality: 89.4%; weight: 239.5 grams.

Samuel Wood (c. 1704 to 1794) was among the most prolific London specialists in cast and wrought table plate. Son of a Staffordshire gentleman, he was apprenticed to Thomas Bamford in 1721 and made free in 1730, entering his first mark as a largeworker in 1733 from Gutter Lane by Cheapside. He rose steadily through the Goldsmiths' Company, serving as Warden from 1758 to 1760 and Prime Warden in 1763. His obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine recorded that, aged ninety, he remained "the father and oldest member of that company," still riding to town weekly to transact business at Goldsmiths' Hall.

Bamford had himself been bound to Charles Adam, placing Wood within a continuous line of specialist caster-makers, a tradition he carried forward by training Jabez Daniell and Robert Piercey. Wood's casters and cruets survive in great number, evidence of a near-wholesale output, yet they hold a uniformly high standard and rank among the most attractively designed of the smaller plate essential to any well-appointed eighteenth-century table.

Provenance: private Loveland, Colorado, USA collection

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Item # 202746

  • Condition: Intact and excellent.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $749 $25
$750 $1,499 $50
$1,500 $2,999 $100
$3,000 $7,499 $250
$7,500 $14,999 $500
$15,000 $29,999 $1,000
$30,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 + $10,000