A Fine Pair of Brass Strung Mahogany Knife Urns with Armorials, Likely for the Wills Family of Landrake in Cornwall c.1800

A Fine Pair of Brass Strung Mahogany Knife Urns with Armorials, Likely for the Wills Family of Landrake in Cornwall c.1800 These two urns are of unusually large scale and superb quality, the stringing of brass rather than the more usual boxwood. The rising lids supported on central pillars, the interiors fitted for the display and storage of cutlery. The escutcheon plates of gilt brass and below them are shields engraved with a demi-griffin segreant crest holding an axe. This crest is associated with the Wills family and it is likely that the knife urns were made for the branch of the family based around the village of Landrake in Cornwall. The urns stand on waisted stems set upon integral square bases that are, in turn, raised on gilt brass ball feet. There are fine lion mask ring handles to the sides and brass ball finials to each lid. Although there are a number of knife urns of this style surviving, very few have the additional refinements found on this pair both in terms of their decoration and their extremely large size. At present the corpus of urns cannot be confidently ascribed to any one particular maker but it is clear that they were the product of a major workshop of the calibre of a Gillows or maybe even Seddon. Outstanding examples of turn of the 19th century English design.