The 10 Downing Street Silver Ware Collection at Christie’s King Street
Oh some days are just magical! On Friday I popped over to Christie’s on King Street to see their Silver Trust Collection exhibition and Contemporary Silver: a selling exhibition. It can be good to know that downstairs at Christie’s you can see the 10 Downing Street Silver Collection and upstairs is the selling exhibition. Now, even though I expected to see beautiful things I wasn’t at all prepared for how it would blow me away. Yes, I now have great aspirations for my future collection of tableware…
A unicorn is adorning the silver flower vase – absolutely magical!
The yellow flowers complemented the silver so beautifully and this gilded lion was one of my favourites in the collection
The collection is on permanent loan to 10 Downing Street, which you might know has been the home to British Prime Ministers since 1735. It is usually used to entertain the world leaders when they visit the Prime Minister, and since we are interested in everything antique and vintage here on the blog, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to look into almost 300 years of 10 Downing Street history.
The famous story of St George slaying the Dragon. In the Middle Ages dragons often represented the Devil
10 Downing Street St George and the Dragon
10 Downing Street is in the UK also known as “Number 10”. It is the official residence of the British Prime Minister, his office and the place where he entertains guests; a guest list which includes Her Majesty The Queen and all kinds of world leaders. Downing Street Number 11 in turn is the residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was built in the 1680s by Sir George Downing (1632-1689), a property investor who realised the potential of developing the land around Whitehall and built a cul-de-sac of two-storey town homes with beautiful stables and a views of St James’s Park. The addresses changed around many times during the years – so Number 10 was Number 5 for some time, only to become “10” in 1787.
The first PM to live at Number 10 was Sir Robert Walpole in 1735. His official title was ‘First Lord of the Treasury’ but he is considered to have been the first Prime Minister. The King actually offered him the property as a gift, but Walpole insisted that it be used on an official basis. The second and third PM’s preferred to live at home so only in 1763 did the next one move in. When Lord North moved in some major improvements were made; the rather handsome lion head knocker on the black door, the chequerboard floor in the entrance hall and the lamp above the front door.
Coffee set by Brian Asquith,1992
After Lord North the country’s youngest-ever leader moved in: William Pitt at the age of 24. He stayed for a very long time; 1783-1801, and then again from 1804-06 before he passed away.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill noted that the houses had been quickly and cheaply built, and wrote about Number 10: “shaky and lightly built by the profiteering contractor whose name they bear”.
A lovely little design of the black door at 10 Downing Street
For some time the surrounding areas were quite rough neighbourhoods and two PMs were the victims of assassination attempts (one survived but lost his secretary, while the other one lost his life) and for many years Number 10 was not used for its purpose. Then Benjamin Disraeli came along in 1877 and turned the place around by installing telephones, electric lightning as well as having some further major renovations done.
There is no access to the house of street for the general public but there are millions of photos to explore of the famous black door out there in cyber space. We are also getting a preview on some of the silver featured in the photos here today.
In the picture above you can see the black door of 10 Downing Street
The exhibition will be on view to the public at Christie’s King Street until 5 September 2013.
From the upstairs selling exhibition: Jenny Edge, Twisted Candlesticks £3,310
From the upstairs selling exhibition: Rauni Higson, Fold Formed Napkin Rings £1,140
Sources:
Decades of Elegance 