Silver Teapot, Robert Gray and Son, Glasgow, 1827

This round silver Rococo styled teapot has a domed top and is set on a base with a gadrooned band.  A cast plaque has been applied to the side showing two greyhounds hunting a hare and the lettering ‘Ardrossan Coursing Club MCCCCXXVll’. It was made by Glasgow silversmiths, Robert Gray and Son. The teapot’s fashionable design with additional applied and engraved detail identifies it as a sporting trophy. The top, handle and spout are decorated with a swirling foliate and floral rococo-styled pattern.  The NMS owns another silver hare-coursing trophy made by the same firm in 1823, this time in the form of a circular footed basked with handle decorated with a cast band of vine leaves and grapes on the inner edge, bearing the same cast motif of two greyhounds and hare and engraved detail of the prize winner. These wares, the teapot and the basket, were presumably also made without the additional decoration for domestic customers.

Silverware production was transformed ca1820 with increases in the supply of silver from the Americas and Australia, reducing costs and allowing expansion into the growing middle class market.  Design influences were conservative and mostly backward referencing, with the Neoclassical and Rococo style predominating. The gadroon motif on the base and upper rim of this teapot was commonly found on the edges of furniture as well as silver ware of the period and is of neoclassical inspiration, though the piece as a whole is of a hybrid design.  A base like this could be used for other items in the product range.  

Robert Gray (c. 1755-1829) is regarded as one of Scotland’s finest silver makers, with a firm in Glasgow’s Trongate from c. 1776 and a broad output that included flatware, candlesticks, presentation cups and plates and the ubiquitous silver tea service. At the time the teapot was made, the firm was managed by William Gray (1781-1850), son of the founder, who was his father’s apprentice from 1794-1802. Robert Gray and Son trained a generation of fine silversmiths, many emigrating overseas, including Robert Hendery of Montreal, who completed his apprenticeship in Glasgow in 1837 and was in business in Canada by 1841.

The Ardrossan Coursing Club, for which this teapot was made, ran its hounds over Lord Eglinton’s lands in the vicinity of the Ayrshire town of Ardrossan.  Hare coursing was a popular blood sport amongst rural elites and presentation cups or other silver items, including silver dog collars, were awarded as prizes.  Andrew Brown Esq of Thornhill near Stewarton in Ayrshire, whose name as winner is engraved on the teapot along with the name of his dog ‘Loo’, was a gentleman farmer.  Robert Gray and Son made many prizes and presentations pieces and also decorated silverwares made by other firms. The silverware trade involved complex relationships between firms with highly skilled provincial makers sourcing some of the components for their standard wares from big London firms.