Lot description
JOHN KING, ENGLISH GEORGIAN REPOUSSE STERLING SILVER PRESENTATION MUG FROM DUCHESS OF ORLEANS TO CAPTAIN FORD, baluster-form well having an applied double-scrolled handle and raised on a round foot, sides featuring repousse, chased, and engraved designs of flowers, leaves, scrolls, and shells, center vignette framing presentation engraving that reads "H.R.H. Duchess of Orleans, / to Captain Ford". Underside impressed with "[I] [pellet] K" maker's mark for John King and four hallmarks of a lion passant for sterling fineness, a crowned leopard's head city mark for London, an "o" date mark for 1789, and a King George III duty mark. Total weight: 8.810 ozt. Circa 1789. 4 7/8" HOA, 3" D rim. Catalogue Note: This presentation mug is believed to be given to Captain John Ford (British, c.1738-September 14, 1796) from Louise Marie Adelaide de Bourbon, Duchess of Orleans (French, March 13, 1753-June 23, 1821). Captain Ford served in the British Royal Navy, and eventually became the Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station. At the requests of French Royalists during the Haitian Revolution, Ford mounted a campaign against Saint-Domingue and Jeremie in 1793. The British captured several merchant ships including the French Navy schooner, Convention Nationale, renaming her HMS Marie Antoinette when they took the ship into their service. Around the time of his promotion to rear-admiral on April 12, 1794, Ford began a blockade of Port-au-Prince and commanded a squadron that accompanied brigadier-general John Whyte that briefly captured the city. On June 1, 1795, Ford was further promoted to vice-admiral, though he vacated the Jamaica command and returned to England by August of that year, which was only about a year before he died from a long and painful illness that he contacted in the West Indies. The Duchess of Orleans was the richest woman in France before her funds were confiscated by Revolutionaries in 1793. She was imprisoned and eventually exiled from France until 1814 at the time of the Bourbon Restoration. Most of her fortunes were recovered by the time of her death. This mug is thought to have been commissioned by the Duchess as a gift to Ford some time in 1793, or thereafter, in appreciation for his service to the French Royalist cause.