THE ROYAL PLATE
Plate for the Royal table—Plate for the King’s Chapel—Trumpets and
maces—Queen Elizabeth’s gold salt cellar—Escapes the
Commonwealth—The design of the salt cellar—The State salt of Charles
II—Presented by the City of Exeter—A jewelled castle armed with
golden guns—Charles II’s wine fountain—Presented by the Borough of
Plymouth—The finest specimen of plate in the Jewel House—Not only
ornamental, but useful to His Majesty—The ordeal of the lady on
top—The eleven St. George’s Salts—Curious history of a set of four—A
correspondence that lasted ninety-two years—The ordeal of the
serpents—St. George on the canopy of the great salts—The salt
spoons—Two golden tankards—To be viewed from a discreet distance—The
silver trumpets—Used at Coronations—And when Peace is
Proclaimed—Crimson and gold bannerets—The Archbishop’s old time
exhortation—The maces of the sergeants-at-arms—Charles II, James II,
William and Mary, George I—The mace originally a bludgeon—The crown
at head of it the insignia of Royal authority—The policeman’s
truncheon a miniature mace—The maces at the Proclamation of
Peace—The mace-bearers originally a corps of knights—Bodyguard of
the King.
THE Royal Plate in the Jewel House may be roughly divided into two main
categories, the one being plate for the Royal table and dignity, and the
other ecclesiastical plate for use at Coronations or at services in one
of His Majesty’s Chapels Royal. The table plate consists mostly of large
gold salt cellars, known as Salts of State, whilst the kingly dignity is
represented by the great gold maces borne by the sergeants-at-arms, and
the silver trumpets which sound a fanfare when the king is crowned.
The oldest piece of table plate in the Jewel House is Queen Elizabeth’s
gold salt cellar. How this escaped the depredations of the Commonwealth,
or how it avoided being melted down with other Royal plate, to meet the
necessities of Charles I, history does not relate. Very possibly it was
sold in those days, and preserved by the purchaser through the troublous
times, and then either given back, or sold back, to the Crown on the
Restoration.
The salt cellar, which is a very fine specimen of Elizabethan work,
stands about a foot in height; at the top is a shallow pan in which the
salt was placed, over which is a gold canopy supported on brackets. The
object of canopies such as this apparently was to keep the larger and
more obtrusive pieces of dirt and dust from the rough rafters overhead,
from falling into the salt. Salt was a precious thing in those days, and
as carefully to be protected as would _pâté de foie gras_ in these
times. On top of the canopy stands a knight in armour holding a long
two-handed sword and a shield. He also is manifestly guarding the salt
from theft and danger.
With the exception of this one piece, none of the gold table plate in
the Jewel House dates further back than the reign of Charles II, and
this for good and sufficient reasons, as we have seen. To renew the
Royal Plate at the Restoration several contributions were made, and the
chiefest of these by the loyal county of Devon. The city of Exeter
presented His Majesty with a magnificent golden State salt cellar,
fashioned like a castle; and the Borough of Plymouth came forward with
one of the handsomest pieces of gold plate in existence, a beautiful
wine fountain.
The State salt cellar stands nearly two feet high, and is a most
elaborate and beautifully worked out representation of a square castle
prepared for defence as it would be in medieval days. At each corner are
turrets for flank defence, and cannons and guns bristle from every wall.
On the top is a cupolo shaped like a Royal crown, and under this may be
seen exquisitely fashioned field-guns on wheels. The castle is adorned
throughout with precious stones, one specially large sapphire being
observable above the portcullis at the front entrance. Some historians
think it was intended to represent the White Tower, which is the keep of
the Tower of London, but as many castles in those days were more or less
of this design, and amongst them Exeter Castle, it seems more probable
that the design was taken from that city.
The tops of the four turrets as well as the crown left off and disclosed
shallow pans or saucers each capable of holding a small quantity of
precious salt. There are also small troughs under the windows also
intended each to hold a little salt. Probably nobody but the King and
Queen and three or four distinguished guests seated near were intended
to take salt from the State salt cellar, its place being in the centre
of the great banqueting table exactly opposite the King.
The wine fountain, besides being an exceedingly fine example of the
goldsmith’s art, must have been a very acceptable and appropriate
present for the jovial King to receive. The fountain stands two and a
half feet high, the central figure being a lady very lightly clad,
holding a snake by the neck. Below the lady are two tiers of shallow
receptacles shaped like shells and ornamented with mermaids, dolphins,
and sea nymphs. The lower, and larger tier, measures 28 in. in diameter.
When in use the fountain could be made to play as does a water-fountain
in the garden. The procedure would be to place a barrel of wine in the
gallery: from this a pipe would run which could be fixed to the hollow
at the base of the fountain. When the tap was turned on the wine would
run up inside the lady and out presumedly through the serpent’s mouth.
The height of spray would depend on the height of the barrel above the
table. The wine as it fell in spray would drip down the lady, which
impending deluge doubtless accounts for her lack of garments; thence it
would flow into the tier of smaller receptacles. As these filled up they
would overflow into the larger receptacles below, and when these in
their turn were filled to overflowing, the only way to prevent a flood,
and a devastating waste of good wine, was for the company to
continuously dip their beakers into them and thus stem the tide by
steadily drinking the contents.
There are eleven other great gold salt cellars amongst the Royal plate
at the Tower dating from the reign of Charles II, which used to help in
decorating the tables at Coronation banquets. These are all known as St.
George’s Salts and are of several patterns.
A curious story attaches to one set of four of these salt cellars. They
are cylindrical in shape, rather like a deep drum, and embossed with
sprays of leaves and flowers in high relief. At the top are three
brackets curving outwards fashioned as serpents. When the Royal plate
was being overhauled for the Coronation of George IV, some bright expert
decided that the brackets were not brackets, but legs, and turned the
salts over and stood them on these. He was then faced by an aching void
which would hold a couple of pounds of salt, for the cylinders are
hollow. Naught dismayed, he had shallow gold pans to hold salt made to
fit the cylinders, and on these were engraved the Royal arms and the
words “George IV.” Thus upside down the salts remained for ninety-two
years, the serpents standing on their heads, and the herbaceous
ornamentation drooping sadly. During those ninety-two years an animated
correspondence appears to have been carried on as to which end upwards
the salts should rightly stand, and it was only in the time of the
present Keeper of the Jewel House that the serpents, doubtless to their
relief, were allowed again to hold up their heads, and the golden
flowers and foliage were condemned no longer to droop. The real mission
in life of these brackets, as has been re-discovered in this post-bellum
age, is to support a napkin which was spread over them so as to protect
the salt from dust and dirt.
All the rest of the St. George’s Salts have a permanent golden canopy
over them very similar to that which covers Queen Elizabeth’s salt
cellar. On top of the canopy in each case is a knight in armour, in some
cases mounted, in others on foot. The knight is probably meant for St.
George, in some cases mounted before killing the dragon, and in others
dismounted and at rest, after having accomplished that historic feat.
Appertaining to the great salt cellars there remain a residue of twelve
gold salt spoons, the missing numbers no doubt having been lost, or
annexed by excessively loyal guests.
Two very handsome gold tankards are in the Jewel House, which were added
to the Royal plate by George IV. Viewed from a discreet distance the
effect is very fine, but a closer inspection is not recommended to those
who disapprove of realism in art. Queen Victoria, it is reported,
disliked these flagons intensely.
The silver trumpets and gold maces are placed in the Jewel House as part
of the Royal Treasure. There were originally sixteen silver trumpets,
but one disappeared in a bygone reign and has never been recovered, so
that fifteen only remain. They are the ordinary shape of a cavalry
trumpet, and are used not only at the King’s Coronation, but also when
proclamations are made by the Heralds in the King’s name. They were thus
used, for instance, when the Heralds rode to various parts of London and
proclaimed the Peace at the end of the Great War, in 1919. Pendent from
each trumpet is a crimson silk banneret richly embroidered in gold,
displaying the Royal arms with the cypher of the reigning monarch. At
the Coronation of the sovereign the trumpeters blow a fanfare on these
silver trumpets, the ritual for which in the old world wording of the
Coronation service is thus given:
“The Archbishop of Canterbury speaks thus to the people: ‘Sirs, I
here present unto you King George, the undoubted King of this realm:
wherefore all you who are come this day to do your homage, are you
willing to do the same?’ The people signify their willingness by
loud and repeated exclamations, all with one voice crying out ‘God
save King George.’”
Then the trumpets sound a fanfare.
Of gold maces there are eight in number at the Tower. The oldest of
these are two made for Charles II; there are two also which date from
the reign of James II, whilst three were supplied for William and Mary,
and one for George I. They are all of very similar pattern. A mace was
originally a weapon used by cavalry soldiers, and many and various
patterns of these may be seen in the Armoury in the White Tower. It was,
in fact, a bludgeon with a short handle and a heavy head, sufficiently
heavy to beat in the steel helmets worn in those days. The ceremonial
mace has, instead of a battle-head, a crown, and this crown is to denote
the delegation of the Royal authority. The Sergeant-at-arms carrying the
mace before the Speaker, and placing it on rests before him in the House
of Commons, thus conveys the Royal Assent to the assembly. In the same
way mayors of towns have crowned maces borne before with the same
intention. When policemen, or peelers as they were then called, were
first incorporated, they were served out with truncheons which were
miniature maces with a Royal crown at the head of each. These crowns,
however, were not very practical weapons with which to knock a burglar
on the head; indeed, they generally broke off, which was an untoward
catastrophe, so they were discontinued. Those who were in the streets of
London when the Peace proclamation was made at the close of the Great
War, will have noticed that sergeants-at-arms bearing their maces
accompanied the heralds and trumpeters, thus signifying that the whole
ceremony was with the King’s authority.
At the coronation of a sovereign the sergeants-at-arms, whose number
seems to have varied in the course of centuries, carry their maces and
form part of the procession. Originally the mace-bearers were a corps of
twenty-four knights, or gentlemen of high degree, who formed a sort of
bodyguard to the King, and thus they were in the reign of Richard Cœur
de Lion. As late as the reign of Charles II the sergeants-at-arms
bearing their maces are shown mounted on horses. At the present day a
sergeant-at-arms walks and carries his mace, no mean weight, as those
who have seen them stagger after a long day may well imagine.
Thirty-four pounds do they each weigh.
We have now accounted for all the secular plate in the Tower pertaining
to royalty, and proceed to describe the ecclesiastical plate used at the
coronations of our monarchs, or on certain occasions during their
reigns, either at Westminster, or at St. Peter ad Vincula, a Royal
chapel within the Tower.
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