An English provincial silver 'whistle' tankard, Gabriel Felling, Bruton, Somerset, circa 1695

Mrs. F.L. Dickson of Southill, Dean Park, Bournemouth,

Sotheby's, London, 8 April 1937, lot 121, bought by

Deveraux, 173 11s. 10d.,

Christie's, London, 13 July 1994, lot 136,

with Mrs How

The arms are those of Madox of Hertfordshire, London and Masterley, Shropshire.

Individuals and families with the name of Madox are to be found in various parts of England besides those mentioned above, including Kent and Somerset. It is the Madox family in Somerset which is almost certain to relate to this tankard, specifically of the village of Norton Ferris in the parish of Kilmington which is under ten miles from Bruton where Gabriel Felling lived and worked between about 1678 and his death in 1714. There were individuals called Madox living in the parish of Kilmington as early as the 1630s.

Gabriel Felling of Bruton, Somerset

The scarcity and excellence of Gabriel Felling's work long ago attracted the attention of collectors of old silver. It was Timothy A. Kent, the specialist in the history of England's West Country goldsmiths, however, who was the first to investigate this elusive, London-trained plateworker. In his article Gabriel Felling, Goldsmith of Bruton (The Proceedings of the Society of Silver Collectors, 1976-1976, vol. II, nos.11/13, London, Spring

1982, pp.219-221), he traces his career from his first known appearance in London in 1676, when he was working for John Cassan of Drury Lane, a silversmith to Charles II, to his removal to the Somersetshire market town of Bruton by the spring of 1678. From then until his death in 1714 he produced a remarkable group of tankards, cups and other items, many of which are engraved in a manner unique to Felling’s workshop. On this point, Mr. Kent ends his article: 'one wonders whether this [engraving] was executed by Gabriel Felling himself. If not, the work might have been carried out by [the London-trained engraver] Roger Couzens of Crewkerne. . . . Gabriel Felling was obviously a talented workman and his products are of considerable quality and interest.'

'Whistling' Tankards

One of the earliest references to 'whistling' tankards in England was published in The Gentleman's Magazine, London, October, 1856, p.500, 'Antiquarian Researches':

'Mrs. Mary Anne Dixon, widow of a canon residentiary of York, has presented two silver tankards to the Corporation of Hull. One of them is a "whistle tankard",' which belonged to Anthony Lambert, mayor of Hull in 1669, when Charles I. [sic] was refused admission to the town. Mrs. Dixon "has frequently been told that there is only another whistle tankard in the kingdom". The whistle comes into play when the tankard is empty; so that when it reaches the hands of a toper, and there is nothing to

drink, he must, if he wants liquor, "whistle for it"; which possibly may be the origin of the popular phrase.'

The Smoking Monkey

The inclusion in the design of this tankard of the smoking

monkey remains a mystery, although it may be connected with overseas trade of some kind.

With regard to the motif of the smoking monkey itself, it is said that the first recorded instance of such an animal enjoying a pipe, probably mimicking the behaviour of its trainer, was at a fair in The Hague in 1635. Various Dutch artists exploited the subject during the middle of the 17th century, including Abraham Teniers (1629-1670), whose monkey smoking club (oil on copper, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) is a lively example, and David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) who made a number of anthropomorphic monkey studies.

One early 18th century reference to a smoking monkey is quoted in John Ashton, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne Taken from Original Sources, London, 1919, ch. XXI):

"This is to give Notice to all Gentlemen, Ladies, and Others, that are Lovers of Ra-arities, that over against the Muse Gate, near Chairing Cross, is to be seen the same Creature that was shown at Epsom and the Bath all this Summer. This Noble Creature, which much resembles a Wild Hairy Man, was lately taken in a Wood at Bengall in the East Indies,,,,he pulls off his Hat, and pays his Respects to the Company, and smoaks a Pipe of Tobacco as well as any Christian."