Details

LOT 2120

Highclere Castle White Metal Plate Warmer Set with Crest of Lord Carnarvon

EARLY 19TH CENTURY A.D.

9 in. (1.42 kg, 23 cm).

Shallow silver-plated outer case with lateral drop handles and lipped lid with impressed '2' to rim, bae with incised heraldic motif of a dragon crest beneath a coronet within a buckled garter and motto 'Ung Je Servirai' (I will serve only one); two base metal dishes with ropework borders inside. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From Highclere Castle from the 1950s onwards.
Acquired from Newbury Antique Emporium.
Property of a Berkshire, UK, gentleman collector.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Footnotes

The motto is that of the Fitzherbert family, the Earls of Carnarvon. Probably the best-known bearer of that title is George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon (1866 -1923), who financed the exploratory excavations of Howard Carter which resulted in the discovery and publication of the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamen in the 1920s.
On 19 March 1923, Carnarvon contracted blood poisoning after accidentally shaving a mosquito bite infected with erysipelas. He died a few days later on 5 April, in the Continental-Savoy Hotel in Cairo. This unexpected and untimely death gave rise to the story of the 'Curse of the Mummy'. He is buried in a tomb at Beacon Hill, Hampshire and the family lives in Highclere Castle nearby. Highclere is the location chosen for the filming of the BBC drama series 'Downton Abbey'.