A Caughley monteith or verrièrecirca 1785a wine-glass cooler or rinsing bowl, with notched and crenellated upper rim, painted S, incised H, 29.5cm wide (chip to one section of rim)Provenance: Previously ex. Rev. Hayes Collection, purchased at Sotheby's Olympia in 2005.Notes: Godden suggests that the incised H stands for Francois Hardenbourg from Strasbourg, who worked at the Sèvres manufactory and at the Caughley factory from 1780-88. The original vendor noted that the monteith, originally one of two sold, came from a house in Falloden Northumberland and possibly belonged to the house's previous owner, Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey.
This monteith is one of only four known. One is held in the V&A Museum, another in the Shrewsbury Museum and a third in a private collection in Germany.Condition report: Chip to one of the lobed sections of the rim and a very small hairline to the middle rim of another crenallation. There are no further damages or repairs. Internally, there are some firing cracks, but not disfiguring, and one further firing crack to the lower left hand side of one handle. Otherwise in a good condition with no obvious scratches to the exterior and only one or two light scratches to the interior.