A Hunting Hanger with Silver and Moss-agate Hilt, silver mak...

Estimate

£700 - £1,000

A Hunting Hanger with Silver and Moss-agate Hilt, silver maker’s mark of William Knight of London, circa 1690/96, the hilt formed of a polished agate grip swelling to form a flat-sided pommel with projecting tips and capped by a chased silver washer seating a silver button, a silver collar enclosing the base, struck with the silver maker’s mark, silver crosspiece moulded at its centre, with short quillons with disc terminals each cast in relief with a horseman; the blade retaining traces of an etched classical figure at its base (blade with wear and light pitting), blade length 48cm

William Knight (recorded 1678- circa 1702) was a maker of silver sword and bayonet hilts and cutlery, having been sworn free of the Grocers’ Company by servitude in 1685. Knight was active in New Street in the Parish of St. Brides, in the City of London ward of Farringdon Without, and is recorded in the Land Tax Assessment book as working there in 1692. The present hilt bears Knight’s first mark, WK conjoined in a shield; this was succeeded by his second mark in 1697.

Provenance: By tradition, George Venables Vernon of Sudbury (b. 1709/10 – d. 1786), created Lord Vernon, Baron Kinderton by letters patent in 1762. This entitlement had descended through his mother, the Kinderton male line having become extinct upon the death of his maternal grandfather in 1669.