10¼” diameter 5-lobed pewter alms dish by Charles Puckle Maxey his touchmark struck on the reverse. Engraved around the rim: "The Revd Mr Langford’s Chapel, Clapham, Surry (sic) 1778". A wavy edge bowl with eighteen raised ribs around the bouge is an unusual form for either communion or alms dish use, so it may have had a secular life before being donated for Chapel use, which would also explain the ‘gap’ between Maxey’s known dates, and the engraved date ‘1778’. We know very little about Maxey the third of four children of Rebecca Puckle and Captain Charles Maxey, a mariner. All four siblings were baptised at St Leonard, Shoreditch: Charles (5.12.1723), Rebecca (16.1.1724), Charles Puckle (23.2.1726), and John Seale (17.2.1729). He was apprenticed to Richard King I in June 1743 for a premium of £21. On 14 June 1750, he gained his freedom of the Worshipful Company of Pewterers of London, and had leave to open shop and strike his touch, which six months later he agreed to change to ‘a Pelican on Globe’ instead of that of the late James King. In March 1750, he bound his one and only apprentice Samuel Wright son of John, a pipemaker of Islington, Middlesex, for whom no freedom record is known. The last date we have for Maxey is June 1752 when he was admitted to the Livery of the Worshipful Company. My request to The Chapels Society for information about the Rev Langford and his Chapel was published in their January 2009 Newsletter. Christopher Stell gave this helpful response: “Present evidence indicates that the bowl was one of a set that belonged to the Baptist church, which since 1882 had met in a chapel at the corner of Grafton Square, Clapham. Prior to that, the meeting had been in a chapel at the north end of Clapham Common, South Side dated 1777. AH Stockwell (c1909) quoting ‘an old history of Clapham’ refers to ‘Metal collection plates …. still in use’, and inscribed as described earlier. An outline of the ministerial succession at Grafton Square given in 1928 by WT Whitley gives no indication of the status of the congregation c1778, which may have had only visiting preachers. The Rev Mr Langford has proved difficult to trace. Whitley lists a John Langford as minister of a Baptist church in Gainsford Street, Bermondsey from 1766. Both that church and the one in Clapham were founded by John Dolman whom Langford succeeded at Gainsford Street, until 1777. No clear evidence connects him with Clapham although the dates might be thought suggestive.” Provenance: Carl Ricketts collection #2723. Illustrated and discussed in the article 'Clapham Chapel Plate' at p14 Summer 2010 Bulletin of the Pewter Collectors Club of America. 696g weight. REF: C2723
