Coffee cup, Qianlong c.1785, with the arms of James of Somerset
These arms are recorded for James of Barrow Court, Somerset, and are copied exactly from a bookplate in the British Museum (Viner 2231) for ‘Rice James’.
It is likely, but not certain, that this was the Rice James who married in 1776 Martha, daughter of Sir Robert Ladbroke of Idlicote in Warwickshire, politician, Lord Mayor of London 1747/8 and founder of Ladbroke’s Bank.
This Rice James was a London West India merchant of St Mary le Bone, and partner of Richard Beckford, natural son of Alderman William Beckford (Lord Mayor of London in 1762 and again in 1769, and builder of Fonthill Abbey), in their firm of Beckford and James from 1774.
A further service (to be illustrated in a third volume of Chinese Armorial Porcelain by David S. Howard) has the arms of Williamson quartering Ladbroke.
Reference : Howard, David S.; Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Volume I, p.669
Click image to enlarge