About this lot

Description

by Susannah Barker (1778 - 1792), each only struck with the sponsor's mark, two of plain rectangular and convex form for 'Madeira' and 'Champaigne', the third of navette form for 'Lemon' within a border of bright cut engraving, each on a short length of belcher link chain (3)

Footnote: Susannah Barker registered her mark at Goldsmiths' Hall, London on 25 June 1778. She was recorded as working from a shop at 16 Gutter Lane, later moving to 29 Gutter Lane close to the London Assay Office's premises and the Hall itself. She specialised in making wine, decanter and bottle labels. Contemporary gazettes begin to refer to ‘labels for bottles’ in the 1770s, but it was not until the 1790s that they were established as wine or decanter labels and so these are three early examples. Three of Barker's wine labels are currently on display in the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC, and a further nine examples are on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

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