Salt, Qianlong c.1750, arms of Weyland impaling Sheldon
Circular salt with the arms of Weyland of Woodrising, Norfolk, quartering Roberts and impaling Sheldon. Made for John Weyland, eldest son of Mark Weyland, an eminent London merchant and director of the Bank (of England), who married in 1741 Ann, daughter of William Sheldon, ’citizen and brasier’ [member of the Worshipful Company of Armourers & Brasiers] of London. The Weylands were a prominent London and Norfolk merchant family, of whom several were directors of the Bank and members of parliament.
The only son of John Weyland and Ann Sheldon was another John (1744-1825) who married Elizabeth Johanna Nourse, eldest daughter and co-heir of her father with her sister Apollonia Nourse, wife of the Revd Philip Wodehouse (see Newsletter No. 1 for a set of three tankards made for Apollonia and Philip Wodehouse). Through Elizabeth, the Nourse estates at Woodeaton in Oxfordshire were brought into the Weyland family.
Another service with identical arms but plain spearhead border had been made five years earlier for John and Ann Weyland, but this set is distinguished by Chinese lotus flowers on the sides of the plates, and also on the sides of the hexagonal base of this salt.
Provenance: from the Phil Cooke Collection, with collection label ’897’ on the base.
Reference : Howard, David S.; Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Volume I, p. 471.
Condition : Small original firing frit under rim, not visible from the top; otherwise perfect, armorial very strong.
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