Height: 10cm (4in)
Provenance: Althorp, Northamptonshire, Christies July 2010
Old Sheffield Plate. The chamberstick with shaped dish and reeded border, scroll handle and detachable conical extinguisher, baluster socket with matching shaped and reeded drip pan. The dish engraved with the Garter motto ‘Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense’, Earl’s coronet and crest of Spencer family of Althorp (a griffin's head, a bar gemelle, and two wings, all within a ducal coronet) for George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834).
George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834) was First Lord of the Admiralty, 1794-1801, Spencer's reforms to the administration of the Navy laid the foundations for British victories at sea. He singled out Nelson and sent him to win the Battle of the Nile. Spencer resigned office with Pitt in 1801, re-entering the government in 1806 as Home Secretary. His book collection forms the nucleus of the Rylands Library at Manchester.