Vegatable Dish, London 1805, Henry Nutting

An unusual Vegetable Dish with four compartment removable liner, made in London 1805, by Henry Nutting. It measures 18” long, weighs 170 Troy Ounces 14 dwt. Weights 5311g.

Royal Arms and the arms of Stewart, for Marquess of Londonderry.   Robert Stewart, The First Marquess of Londonderry.  (1739-1821). The Marquesses Coronet was altered in 1816 when he became a marquess, having previously been an Earl.

Part of an important dinner service made for Robert Stewart, Lord Castlereagh, later 20* Marquess of Londonderry. Records held at Mount Stewart (the Stewart Family home in County Down, Northern Ireland, now part of the National Trust) note that the service amounted to "three sauce tureens, around 80 plates, 24 round or oval meat dishes, most of them with covers, 10 pincushion-shaped round casserole (entrée dishes), a vegetable dish, Sauce tureens, knife trays, ice pails, bottle stands, and salts"

It is understood that this is the service that Lord Castlereagh as Foreign Secretary and principal British negotiator, took to the Congress of Vienna and the Treaty of Paris.

Lady Castlereagh's niece, Lady Emma Sophia Edgecumbe who accompanied him to Paris in the spring of 1814, recalled.

"At one of these dinners, the sons of the King of Prussia shared a table with Wellington, Schwarzenberg and Blucher, respectively the British, Austrian and Prussian commanders, plus the wily French politician Talleyrand and Napoleon's former Marshals Marmont, Mortier and Ney"

The following year on another visit to Paris, Lady Emma Sophia describes how,

"Lord Castlereagh gave many great dinners, At the first, which took place a few days after we errived, wes...the Prince of Orange, whose arm, wounded at Waterloo, was still in a sling, and as / sat by his side, I cut the meat in his plate, for he could not do it himself. Subsequently the Emperor of Russia and his two brothers, the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Michael, were Lord Castlereagh's guests"