Loving cup and cover presented to Captain, later Admiral, Francis Geary RN (1710? -1796) for his service at the Siege of Louisbourg, 1745. The cup, which has two scroll handles, is chased overall with flowers, fruit and scrollwork, and around the lower part of the bowl are engravings of four ships named in cartouches above as 'Elephant', 'Heron', 'Deleverance', and 'Chester'. The upper part of the bowl has two empty cartouches. The domed cover has a scroll knop and a crest of a bear's paw holding laurel branches.Captain Francis Geary, later Admiral Sir Francis Geary, of the Chester 50 guns, took three prizes in 1754, likely to be Dunkirk privateers. On 20 February 1754, in company with the 'Sutherland', she took the 'Elephant', and in August 1745 he brought two captures into Louisbourg, the 'Heron', a French East Indiaman from Bengal, and the French 'Notre Dame de Deliverance', from Lima with Õú300,000 and a cargo of cocoa.Richard Gurney
Related
Related
Related