A highly impressive lead water cistern, cast with the date 1705


Decorated to the front and proper right end only, and with moulded rim, the front decorated with a pair of strapwork cartouches, and the initial triad 'JJM', St George and the Dragon, mullets, the figure of Charity, dragons, dolphins, Earl's coronets above indistinct ciphers, garlands and fleur-de-lys, the inside with a division, 120cm wide x 64cm deep x 77cm high, (47in wide x 25in deep x 30in high)
|Provenance:-Elvaston Castle, Derby.-Sold Henry Spencer & Sons, 18 & 19 March, 1964, Lot 849 (£70), where catalogued as 'A Fine Queen Anne Ornamental Lead Garden Cistern, decorated with coats of arms within geometrical panels in bold relief and bearing the date 1705'. Sale catalogue included with this Lot.This cistern is known to have stood, at least from the end of the 19th century, on the court before the south front of Elvaston Castle. A very similar cistern, cast with the date 1706, stood at Woodcote House, Woodcote Green, Surrey. It bears the initials 'EAN', believed to stand for Sir Edward Northey and his wife Anne, who built Woodcote House.