A SET OF TWELVE GEORGE II SILVER DINNER PLATES MARK...

Shaped circular with gadrooned rim, the border engraved with a coat-of-arms below a baron's coronet, the undersides later engraved with monogram F/J*C and with scratch weights, marked on undersides
91⁄2 in. (24.1 cm.) diameter
211 oz. 2 dwt. (6,565 gr.)
The arms are those of Pitt for George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers (1721-1803), and his wife Penelope, sister and heir of Sir Richard Atkins, 6th Bart.

Provenance
George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers (1721-1803), then by decent to,
Capt. George Pitt Rivers, of The Manor House, Hinton St. Mary, Dorset, sold,
Christie's, London, 3 July 1928, lot 49 (part).
Acquired by the present owner from S.J. Shrubsole, New York.

Lot Essay
George Pitt (1721-1803) was born in Geneva, and studied at Magdalen College, Oxford. He served as M.P. for Shaftesbury between 1742 and 1747, and then served as M.P. for Dorset between 1747 and 1754. He was Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1761 to 1769, and then to Spain from 1770 to 1771. He was created 1st Baron Rivers of Stratfield Saye in 1776 and of Sudeley Castle in 1802. His portrait by Thomas Gainsborough is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. Another set of twelve dinner plates and a meat dish engraved with the same coat-of-arms were both sold from the Collection of Mrs. Henry Ford II, Christie's, London, 15 April 2021, lot 76 and Christie's, New York, 30 March 2021, lot 131.