A large George III mazarin (20.2"/51cm wide), by Henry Nutting London 1805, engraved with a scratchweight and the arms of Robert Grosvenor, 2nd Earl Grosvenor and (from 1831) 1st Marquess of Westminster (1767-1845)
Price: £1,950.00

Robert Grosvenor (1767-1845) inherited the family estates and the Earldom of Grosvenor from his father in 1802. He held several government offices including a Lordship of the Admiralty between 1789-1791 and Commissionership of Indian Affairs from 1793-1801. He carried the Third Sword of State at the Coronation of Queen Victoria. In 1794, Robert Grosvenor married Eleanor Egerton, only surviving daughter and heir of Thomas Egerton (future Earl of Wilton) and in 1831 he was made 1st Marquess of Westminster (as well as a Knight of the Garter in 1841). An engraved portrait of Earl Grosvenor (13.3 cm/5.25 "x 21.3cm/8.4" unframed) published in 1820 accompanies the mazarin.
The Grosvenor family had owned some marshy land on the edge of the West End of London from the time of the marriage of Sir Thomas Grosvenor to the heiress Mary Davies in 1666. However it was Robert in 1825 who employed the builder Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855) to develop the estate, using the soil reclaimed from the creation of St. Katharine's Dock. This lead to the street plan of Pimlico and Belgravia with its many stuccoed buildings that we know today. It also added substantially to the fortunes of the Grosvenor family (Dukes of Westminster since the elevation of Robert's grandson in 1874).

An Old Sheffield Plate dish ring with fluted body and pierced borders, circa 1785.
Price

Examples of similar design can be found on page 281 of Bradbury's Old Sheffield Plate (1906) and figure 171 of Gordon Crosskey's Old Sheffield Plate (2014) .