A REFINED CHINESE SILVER FILIGREE BASKET WITH COVER

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Late 18th/early 19th century

On six shaped feat, with engraved flower, the sides made of six extremely fine filigree panels with floral motifs, the cover idem, with handle, the rim of the cover with an inscription reading: “To Miss Nisbet Hamilton on the occasion of her marriage, with the respectful good wishes of her Residenters on her Winton Estate, September 1888”.

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H. 15 x L. 26 cm

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Note:

The origins of Winton House in East Lohan, Scotland, date back to 1480 when George 4th Lord Seton commenced the building of Winton Castle. In 1544 during the War of the Rough Wooing, it was destroyed and in 1600 the Seton family were granted Earldom and the first Earl set about restoring the castle. The restoration was completed in 1620 more as a palatial than a defensive house. After the Jacobite Rebellions, the Seton family who backed the House of Stuart lost their title and Winton castle. In 1779 Mrs Hamilton Nisbet bought Winton House and Estate, restored it and passed it down through females till in 1885 it was inherited by Constance Nisbet Hamilton (1843 – 1920). Through her grandmother Mary, who married Thomas 7th Earl of Elgin of the Elgin Marbles, Constance was related to the Elgin family.
In 1888 Constance married Henry Ogilvy. This certainly was the Scottish wedding of the year, attended by hundreds of nobility and the tenant farmers on her estate. Constance was an extremely wealthy woman owning several estates, castles, houses, villages and at least 40 farms in Scotland and England.
This casket was one of the numerous gifts she received as a measure not only of thanks for the interest shown and favours conveyed but certainly also as a measure of real affection. Winton House is still owned by the Ogilvy family and is considered a masterpiece of Scottish Renaissance architecture with a large collection of fine furniture and many important paintings.