Pair Victorian Silver & Enamel Egg Shaped Cruet Sets Ex Dumbleton Hall

A good quality pair of Victorian silver, parcel gilt and enamel Cruet Sets, of trefoil shape with leaf capped scrolled legs, each with an arrangement of four egg shaped condiments enamelled in blue, red and black for Salt, Pepper and Cayenne. The larger central egg for Mustard. Four pieces with the armorial crest of the Kettlewell Eyres family.

By E.H.Stockwell, London 1879. The two Cayenne Pots by George Fox, London 1890.

The crest of a lion rampant, holding in the dexter fore-paw a cross pâtée fitchée, and resting the sinister hind-paw on a cross pâtée, almost certainly for Henry William Kettlewell Eyres (1857-1881), grandson of the wealthy mill owner Samuel Eyres (d.1868) of Armley, Leeds. Samuel Eyres’ daughter Anne had married the Rev. Samuel Kettlewell (1822-1893), but died shortly after her father. The Eyres fortune remained in trust until Henry attained his majority at the age of 21 in 1878. Henry changed his name from Kettlewell to Eyres and married Caroline Sharp in 1880. Tragically he died from a fever in Naples the following year whilst travelling through Europe. Their daughter Caroline Mary Sybil (1881-1959) eventually inherited the Dumbleton Hall estate, which had been acquired for Henry by his trustees in 1875. She married the politician Bolton Meredith Monsell in 1904, her husband taking the additional name and arms of Eyers on his marriage. He was created Viscount Monsell in 1935.

Dumbleton Hall is based in the village of Dumbleton between the towns of Evesham and Tewkesbury and on the boundary of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. The Hall is a Grade II* listed building.
The original Dumbleton Hall can be traced from around 1690 as the home of the Cocks family for over 200 years. After the death of Sir Richard Cocks in the late 18th century the Hall fell into disrepair and was eventually demolished c1780. In 1830 the agriculturalist Edward Holland employed George Stanley Repton to build the present Hall using the local Cotswold stone. The Hall was completed in 1832.
Elizabeth Gaskell, the novelist and cousin of Edward Holland, was a frequent visitor to the Hall. Holland's eldest son married Mrs Gaskell's daughter. Holland knew Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens and the Wedgwood family and they are likely to have been visitors.
From 1881, Dumbleton Hall became home to the Eyres-Monsell family and in the 1920s and 1930s the Hall held house and society parties with regular guests including John Betjeman, later to become Poet Laureate, and the Mitford sisters. The German Ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop was invited to stay at Dumbleton.

A similar single enamelled cruet set by Stockwell sold by Sotheby's in their 'Easter Feast' Sale 7/4/21. Lot 3. £6,300.

Sold - £2,650.00