A pair of George II silver-gilt candlesticks, Paul de Lamerie, London, 1739

Christie's, London, The Right Honourable The Earl of Harewood, 30th June 1965, lot 112,

Subsequently returned to Harewood House, Yorkshire and by descent,

Christies, London, Harewood: Collecting in the Royal Tradition, 5th December 2012, lot 590

The present candlesticks first appeared at auction in the landmark 1965 sale of the Earl of Harewood's silver. Although the design of the candlesticks does not allow for the engraving of a full coat-of-arms, the sale included a number of pieces in a similar restrained rococo style hallmarked in the 1730s, 40s and 50s and engraved with the arms of Edwin Lascelles (1713-1795) and his second wife Lady Jane Fleming whom he married in 1770. It could therefore be assumed that it was he who bought these pieces and the present lot on the second-hand market shortly after his marriage. Edwin was responsible for the creation of the family seat Harewood House in West Yorkshire (built between 1759-1771 and designed by John Carr and Robert Adam), and for commissioning Thomas Chippendale to supply the furniture. Subsequent generations of Lascelles continued to add to the silver collection, perhaps most notably Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl of Harewood (1740-1820) whose silver-gilt banqueting plate, retailed by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell and marked for Paul Storr in and around 1815, was gushingly described in the Leeds Intelligencer when Princess (later Queen) Victoria visited in 1835:

'The dinner was of the most sumptuous kind. It was served up in the gallery, which was laid out in the most superb style, the tables almost literally groaning beneath the weight of the gold and silver services of plate with which they were loaded. Some of the pieces of gold plate at the principal table were as heavy as one person could carry.'

A similar set of four candlesticks, with marks for Paul de Lamerie, London, 1740 were made for Algernon Coote, 6th Earl of Mountrath (sold at Christie's, London, 10 June 2010, lot 335), and a further similar set of four, marked for London, 1737, is at the Sterling and Francis Clark Art Institute (1955.370).