A N N U A L R E P O R T - The Ashmolean Museum

Acquisitions, Gifts and Loans / 41
Three pieces of silver gilt
Purchased from the Cassel collection through Sotheby’s with the aid of the
National Heritage Memorial Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, the Central
Purchase Fund and the Friends of the Ashmolean with the help of donations from
Mrs Diane Bacon and Mrs Helen Smyth in memory of their Grandfather A H
Whiteley; Mr and Mrs Brian Wilson; Mr and Mrs Michael Pix; Lady Heseltine; and
various other donors. (The Ashmolean led a consortium of nine UK museums to
purchase silver items from the historic collection of Sir Ernest Cassel (1852–1921)
on tax-concessionary terms).
Ewer and Basin
Silver-gilt, London 1592–3, diam. of basin, 41.2 cm; H. of ewer, 29.8 cm, maker’s
mark: IN or TN above a mullet.
Ewers and basins, used for washing hands at table before forks came into
general use, were the most prestigious type of table plate in Renaissance
Europe, but few matched Elizabethan pairs have survived the melting pot.
The enamelled roundel on the basin has the arms of Richard Proctor, Master
of the Merchant Taylors’ Company, and his wife; in his will, made in 1610,
he left to his son Samuel my Bason and Ewer of silver guilte.