Sequeira e Wellington

Candelabrum

'Portuguese Service'

designed by Domingos António de Sequeira

made in Lisbon

1813-1816

    "This silver service was intended to glorify the Triple Alliance between Britain, Spain and Portugal and to celebrate their joint Victories against the French between 1808 and 1814. To the Portuguese, the Peninsular War was a war of Independence and this was their great gift to the man who had ensured its survival, the first Duke of Wellington.

    The service was designed and executed under the control of Domingos Antonio de Sequeira (1768 - 1837), court painter to Dona Maria I. As far as is known, Sequeira had never designed anything in silver before receiving the commission for the service and designed only two pieces of silver subsequently. Sequeira remained loyal to his constitutional principles and after Dom João VI abandoned the Constitution in 1823 he left Portugal and eventually settled in Rome where he died. His work is at its most creative and original during the Peninsular War." Daqui