Sir Watkin's silver sauce boat

Robert Adam was the most fashionable and certainly the most expensive architect of his day. He was commissioned by Sir Watkin to design a London house for him in St James Square. The house is still standing and has recently been restored. Adam was famed for his skill in co-ordinating all aspects of a building and this included the table silver. Sir Watkin was a rich man with an annual income of £27,000. Even so, for him to commission a complete service at the same time was unusual and to commission designs on paper for every single component was exceptional. The service, known as the Great Table Service, cost £2,408 (£153,000 in today's money) and may help explain how he had accumulated debts of £100,000 more than £6m in today's money) by 1776.

The sauceboat was introduced from France in the early 18th Century along with a fashion for sauces.