RARE PIECES of Irish Georgian silver made to celebrate the crushing of the 1798 Rising at New Ross, Co Wexford, have come to light at Christie’s in London.
The international fine art auctioneers said the pair of silver soup tureens and covers could fetch £30,000 when they go under the hammer at auction today.
Inscriptions and marks show they were made in Dublin in 1799 by silversmith Robert Breading and presented to an Irishman in the British army, Major Gen Henry Johnson, to honour his “Gallantry and Spirit for his Native Country and the British Empire in the Battle of New Ross 5th June 1798”.
Johnson, who was born in 1748 in Kilternan, Co Dublin, joined the British army and quickly rose through the ranks. When the United Irishmen launched the rebellion against British rule in May 1798 he was dispatched to Co Wexford, and oversaw the defence of New Ross, where his troops defeated the rebels.
A grateful “body of gentlemen” in Waterford collected funds to buy the silver for him “to commemorate the Glorious Era of National Deliverance”.
Earl Cornwallis, the lord lieutenant of Ireland, claimed that Johnson was “adored for his defence at New Ross, and considered as the saviour of the south”.
Johnson later moved to England, was created a baronet in 1818 and died at his home in Bath in 1835. But the silver stayed with the Johnson family – and was passed down through the generations for over 150 years until sold at auction in 1954 – for just £400, to a private collector.
