Anon. Goldsmiths' Hall 1854 Dinner Menu Ring & Brymer Caterer

Sharp Family Regency Collection

This menu forms part of a collection of Regency friendship pictures that were bequeathed to Sir Tom Hickinbotham (1903–1983), a colonial administrator who served as governor of Aden, by his maternal aunts, Alice Rose Mary and Gertrude Sharp. The album was watermarked 1817, with pictures dating mainly to the 1820s, which corresponds with two generations prior, that of Hickinbotham's great-grandfather, Cato Sharp (c.1772–1832) and his great-grandmother, Elizabeth Ensor.

Cato Sharp, a native of Birmingham, was a successful and influential foreman for the goldsmiths Rundell and Bridge in Dean Street, Soho, London. Rundell and Bridge were the official Royal Goldsmiths to four successive British monarchs. Leading artists such as Thomas Stothard (1755–1834), John Flaxman (1755–1826) and the enamel painter William Essex (c.1784–1869) worked as designers for Rundell and Bridge. It is possible that this collection includes works by artists associated with the goldsmith company.

Theophilus Sharp (1817–1895) (son of Cato Sharp and father to Alice Rose Mary and Gertrude), was a rector of various parishes, including in Worcester and at Ansley, Warwickshire (1866–7) of which there is a drawing in the collection. He married at Burton-on-Trent.

There is also a connection to Derbyshire in the collection, through two beautiful botanical works by the Derby Porcelain factory artist Moses Webster (1792–1870), and through a drawing of Dovedale by Caroline Anne Hurt (1810–1897) of Alderwasley Hall, Wirksworth, Derbyshire. Caroline Hurt subsequently married Edward Davies Davenport, living at Capesthorne Hall. She was a close friend of the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, who frequently visited Capesthorne Hall. Hurt later married Edward Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton.

There is a fine portrait of Lord Byron in the collection. There are also some interesting miniature drawings of scenes from Shakespeare.