John Hunt & Robert Roskell Pair of English Sterling Repoussed Child's Cup's, London 1881

These outstanding cups with regency inspired classical grape vine repoussé decoration are exceptional examples of Victorian silver. Each cup has a stepped applied foot, a drawn applied molded lip and a cast and applied vine form handle. One is inscribed: "De Lancey Kane Jay, from his Godfather Woodbury Kane, August 17th 1881." The other is from his godmother, Sybil Kent Kane, with a similar inscription. Each measures 3.5 inches high, 4.25 inches across the handle and together they weigh 12.95 troy ounces. They are in very good condition retaining their original interior gilding. Marked underneath "Hunt & Roskell late Storr & Mortimer."

John Samuel Hunt, Paul Storr's nephew by marriage, took over his uncle's business upon Storr's death in 1838. For the next fifty years, first as Mortimer & Hunt then as Hunt & Roskell, the firm continued as one of the most important silversmithing and jewelry making firms in the world, serving as Crown Jewelers and Silversmiths to her Majesty Queen Victoria and her extended family of European royalty.

Provenance: by descent in the family. De lancey Kane Jay (1881-1941) was a prominent New York lawyer. During Word War I, he served in the army and was severely injured at Chateau du Diable, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He was the great grandson of John Jay (first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Governor of New York State, diplomat who helped Ben Franklin negotiate the treaty of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War, co-author of the Federalist Papers, etc., etc.) Woodbury and Sybil Kane were his uncle and aunt godparents. Woodbury Kane was a member of Theodore Roosevelt's "Rough Rider" Cavalry brigade during the Spanish - American war and helped take San Juan Hill.