A LARGE AND IMPRESSIVE CHARLES II BRONZE MORTAR

A LARGE AND IMPRESSIVE CHARLES II BRONZE MORTAR

BY THE SAMUEL SMITH FOUNDRY, YORK (fl.1672-1709), DATED '1680'
inscribed beneath the rim ‘THOMAS ROGERS 1680’, along with acanthus, flowerheads and scrolling foliage, a wide band at the waist cast six times with the maker's mark 'SS' and 'Ebor' (Eboracencis, Latin for York), within a scroll edge cartouche, spaced by bells issuing foliate scrolls, atop three cords, foot with recessed flange

25.5cm high, 32.5cm diameter

Provenance

John Fardon Collection.

Peter Hornsby Collection.

Roger Rosewell Collection.

Christopher Bangs Private Collection.

Literature

This mortar is described M. Finlay, English Decorated Bronze Mortars & their Makers, p. 155. The footnote to the John Fardon sale catalogue, Christie's, 1st May 1996, lot 63, refers to two possible Thomas Rogers, one at North Loftus, died 1684, the other from South Elasball (sic. possibly South Elmsall, West Yorkshire). The footnote to the Roger Rosewell sale catalogue, Bonhams, 21st January 2015 lot 63, notes other possible candidates, including a Thomas Rogers, who married Mary Freeman in York, 1677, or the Thomas Rogers who married Jane Watson in York,1642. It is, of course, entirely possible Rogers was not a native of York, or even Yorkshire, as mortars were commissioned on occasion from founders who were not local to the buyer. See for example, a mortar made for Roger Warde, an apothecary of York, by the Whitechapel Foundry of London', illustrated in M. Finlay, English Decorated Bronze Mortars & their Makers' p. 70.