Royal: a set of four George III silver-gilt coasters, Digby Scott & Benjamin Smith, London, 1805/1806

Ernest Augustus, 1^st Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, from 1837 King of Hanover (1771-1851), and by descent to

Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover, 3^rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale (1845-1923), sold to

Crichton Brothers in 1923 and subsequently purchased by either Urban Huddleston Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896–1966) or his brother 

Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Lord Fairhaven (1900-1973), both at that time of Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire,

thence by descent 

H. Avray Tipping; The English Silver Plate of the Duke of Cumberland; Country Life; 2 February 1924, p.162

The arms are those for Ernest Augustus, 1st Duke of Cumberland and later King of Hanover (1771-1851).

Benjamin Smith and Digby Scott began to produce wine coasters in various similar fruiting vine patterns in 1803. An 1804 set of four wine coasters in one of these patterns, is engraved with the badge of the Duke of Cumberland's brother the Duke of Sussex and illustrated in The Glory of the Goldsmith: Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al Tajir Collection, 1989, fig. 116, p. 154.

It was reported in June 1923 that the Duke of Cumberland was negotiating with several groups of dealers, ‘each of them as quietly as possible, for even part of the collection would be regarded as a great prize.’¹ This prize was to be won by the London silver dealer Lionel Alfred Crichton (né Lionel Alfred Solomon, 1865-1938), and with the English part of the Hanover/Cumberland silver secured, Crichton opened their first selling exhibition on 20 November 1923, which, coincidentally, was just a week after Cumberland’s death.² The exhibition was such a success, Crichton purchased another tranche of silver from Hanover for an exhibition stage the following year.

Notes

1. The Times, London, Thursday, 21 June 1923, p. 13g

2. The Times, London, Tuesday, 20 November 1923, p. 11b