The Mary Eleanor Hibbert Cape Silver Collection

Live Virtual Auction, 9 July 2025

The Mary Eleanor Hibbert Collection
About the Session

This auction features the notable private Cape silver collection of Mary Eleanor Hibbert assembled over many decades and featuring rare pieces, including a double beaker, alms dish, sugar bowls, snuff boxes and 18ct gold clasps from the golden age of Cape silversmithing. Master silversmiths included in this collection are Willem Godfried Lotter, Lawrence Holme Twentyman, Johannes Casparus Lotter, Johan Hendrik Vos and Jan Lotter.


Sold for

ZAR 14 070
Lot 16
  • A Cape silver snuff box, Willem Lotter, c.1770-1810


Lot Estimate
ZAR 5 000 - 7 000
Selling Price
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
ZAR 14 070
Auction Catalogue

About this Item

Cape Colony
A Cape silver snuff box, Willem Lotter, c.1770-1810
rectangular with engraved foliate borders, the hinged cover engraved with initials 'BRB' over 'MDB', gilt interior, 100g,6,8cm long

Provenance

The Mary Eleanor Hibbert Collection

Notes

Willem Lotter, believed to possibly be Cape silversmith Willem Godfried Lotter, who was occasionally listed as W. Lotter.

Willem Godfried Lotter, baptized at the Cape on 29 September 1748, was the son of Matthias Lotter and Anna Dorothea van den Berg. He married Helena Wilhelmina Cornelisse on 7 April 1776, and later Wilhelmina Margaretha Wentzel on 15 August 1779. He began working as a silversmith around 1770 and continued until 1809. He died in 1810. It appears that Willem Godfried and his son shared the same silversmith marks, as these marks have been found on items dated both earlier than the son's working period and later than the father's.

Stephan Welz (1976) Cape Silver and Silversmiths, Cape Town: AA Balkema.

View all Willem Lotter lots for sale in this auction



More from The Mary Eleanor Hibbert Cape Silver Collection

A Cape silver coffee pot, Johannes Casparus Lotter, c.1760
A Cape silver coffee pot, Johannes Casparus Lotter, c.1760
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A Cape silver sugar basket, unknown maker HNS, 18th century
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A Cape silver two-handled sugar bowl, Jan Lotter, c.1813-1817
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A Cape silver comb, Johannes Combrink, c.1814-1853
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A Cape silver double beaker, Lawrence Holme Twentyman, c.1818-1837
A Cape silver double beaker, Lawrence Holme Twentyman, c.1818-1837
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A Cape silver snuff box, Johannes Marthinus Lotter, c.1844-1879
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