An unusual and massive cake basket by the virtually unheard of silversmith Louis Laroche. His name pegs him of course as a Huguenot, but this basket says more about him than anything else recorded.



The arms are those Eliot impaling Craggs, for Richard Eliot M.P. (1694-1748) of Port Eliot, Cornwall, and his wife Harriot (1713-1769), natural daughter of James Craggs the Younger (1686–1721), whom he married on 4 March 1726. Harriot married secondly the Hon. John Hamilton. Their son John James was created 1st Marquess of Abercorn in 1790. Richard was Auditor and Receiver General to the Prince of Wales.