Princely Taste in Regency Silver - Christie's Archives

A FINE GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT TANKARD  MARK OF PHILIP RUNDELL, LONDON, 1820
Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000 

George IV, as Prince Regent and later as King, was the greatest patron of Rundell’s, commissioning massive works for use at his residences at Carlton House and Brighton Pavilion, and of presentations and celebrations during the Napoleonic Wars. Known as “the engine of fashion,” the Prince Regent was followed in matters of taste by the entire aristocracy, including William Beckford, the Duke of Wellington, and Thomas Hope—all clients of Rundell’s.

Read the rest of this fascinating article in this featured archive at Christie's: Princely Taste in Silver: The Stuart Collection of New Orleans

Royal Palaces, Residences, and Art Collection

Curious to find out more about the tastes of George III (above), the father of the Prince Regent, and the Prince Regent himself? This site, The Royal Collection: Royal Palaces, Residences, and Art Collection allows you to find the works collected by George III and George IV, as well as artifacts about both men. The collection includes the aquisitions of the British monarchy, including an essay on architecture by George III (which you can zoom in on and read); collections of paintings, prints, manuscripts, and sculptures; and images of the family.


Also included are a wide variety of images of George III and George IV, and other royal collectors. This site brims with information about the royal palaces, and is well worth the visit.

Princess Augusta, 1802, Sir William Beechey

The Prince Regent

Without Prinny, the Regency Era (1811-1820) would have had a decidedly different character. He was a libertine and gifted wastrel who set the tone and style for the age.

George IV, The Prince of Wales lived life extravantly and was enormously unpopular for it in some circles. This Prince of Pleasure's once tall slim frame grew heavy and corpulent from overindulgence, as you can see in the illustration above by James Gilray, who satirized the Prince in a number of unflattering cartoons.

But before the Prince Regent took over, the country was already in shambles. Louis Simond, An American in Regency England, observed in his travel journal in 1809: "One thing that surprises me more and more every day; it is the great number of people in opposition; that is, those who disapprove, not only the present measures of ministers,which have not been of late either very wise or very successful, but the form and constitution of the government itself. It is stigmatized as vicious, corrupt, and in decay,without hope or remedy but in a general reform, and in fact a revolution. "

The links below define Prinny and his era even further:
1. George IV and the United Kingdom
2. The Prince Regent and His Circle: In Their Own Words
3. Prince Regent
4. Coronation of George IV
5. Prinny's Many Mistresses
6. Prince George's Culture Clubs: A Trail Through Regency Brighton