Auguste, Robert-Joseph b. Bunsen, Franz Peter b. Boullier, Antoine. Nubell, Franz Anton Hans. Originally intended to accomodate 72 diners. Acquired by a Rothschild Family Trust in , some pieces from the service are set out at Waddesdon in the eighteenth century manner. The affairs of Hanover were his private business, and few of his British subjects visited the Electorate. It was a group of provinces about the size of Wales, with a population of about ,, governed by a Regency Council and a German Minister in London.
George took an intense personal interest in the prosperity of Hanover, even though he never actually went there. He planned a visit in the early s and in a British constitutional crisis of he threatened to abdicate and retire there. The service acted as a stand-in for the absent George III, and was also used to serve his sons.
The story of this commission, the largest and best-documented of any from a German court in the eighteenth century, shows a carefully planned strategy, carried out over more than a decade. They then extended their services with locally-made copies. This policy was adopted by the officials in Hanover. His new Service, the King insisted, was to correspond to the current method of serving, in which stately tureens dominated the table.
Early in the s,the Hanover Chamberlain commissioned drawings from goldsmiths in both Vienna and Rome, but Paris was the final choice. In the summer of , the French royal goldsmith, Robert-Joseph Auguste, whose silver tableware had been admired and copied in England from at least , despatched sample designs to Hanover. After negotiations and a delay while funds accumulated, final drawings followed in January Auguste had a suitably stellar pedigree. One of his earliest commissions was a collaboration with the sculptor Falconet on a spectacular pair of gold salts for Madame de Pompadour and he supplied the regalia for the coronation in From the mids he was goldsmith of choice for the courts of Europe, including Stockholm, Copenhagen and Lisbon.
Catherine the Great was one of his greatest patrons, commissioning no less than four large services from him between and He was effectively the main supplier to the French crown until the Revolution, although very little French royal silver by him survived the upheaval.
