William IV Presentation Shield, London, 1834 by Paul Storr

A William IV Presentation Shield.

London, 1834 by Paul Storr.

Diameter: 22”; Weight: 148 oz.

This remarkable, brilliantly finished shield depicts a mounted Life Guard in high relief carrying a banner reading "Waterloo" and "Peninsula.” The border of military trophies includes kettle drums with the Royal Arms, rifles, swords, helmets, banners and breastplates. 

The Life Guards are one of the regiments of the Household Cavalry—the official bodyguards of the Monarch. Officers of these regiments traditionally commemorated their service with a gift of silver to be displayed in the Officers’ Mess. This shield was given in 1835 by Henry Bingham Baring. Baring was a Major in the army and became a Captain in the 1st Regiment of Life Guards in 1822.

The gift is particularly grand, but it is commensurate with Baring’s station and wealth. He was a grandson of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet and founder of Barings Bank. He was also a grandson of the American statesman and banker William Bingham—said to have been the richest man in late eighteenth-century America. Baring was M.P. for Marlborough from 1832 to 1868, Junior Lord of the Treasury from 1841 to 1846, and a director of the family bank for his entire adult life.

The shield is a very rare instance of a silversmith quoting himself. As Colonel in Chief of the Regiment in 1831, King William IV comissioned Paul Storr to make a magnificent pair of silver kettledrums, now in the Household Cavalry Museum. Storr has depicted those drums here, on the lower rim of Baring’s shield. 

Provenance: 
Presented in 1835 by Major Henry Bingham Baring to the 1st Regiment of Life Guards. 
Possibly sold, or returned to one of Baring’s heirs, on the joining of the 1st and 2nd Life Guards in 1922.

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance