Details

LOT 2146

'Lord Carnarvon' Highclere Castle Pewter Ewer

MID 19TH CENTURY A.D.

5 3/4 in. (323 grams, 14.5 cm).

Squat in profile with integral looped scrolls and palmette ornament to the stub feet,hatched guilloche and wreath detailing to the body with ellipsoid plaques, broad mouth with rolled rim and broad pouring lip, scrolled handle with thumb-pad; stamped to underside '49 1/2', 'James Dixon & Sons / Sheffield', 'FPBM' (in cartouches) / 51675'. [No Reserve]

Provenance

By repute 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

Property of 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'.