Lady Ilchester’s silver Dog Collar.

Lady Ilchester’s silver Dog Collar.
A rare and interesting English silver Dog Collar, circa 1735, struck with a mkaer’s mark only ‘JD’, at present unattributed but almost certainly a London maker.
This early 18th century Dog collar is pierced with the words: ‘Miss Horner Grosvenor Street’ and was owned by Elizabeth Strangways Horner, born in 1723, the daughter and heiress of Thomas and Susanna Strangways Horner of Mells in Somerset and Melbury in Dorset. At the age of thirteen, Elizabeth was married off by her mother to Stephen Fox, then aged thirty two. The clandestine marriage was the talk of the town but, surprisingly, was a happy one. Fox became Lord Ilchester in 1741 and the Earl of Ilchester in 1756.This collar must have been purchased sometime between November 1735, when Elizabeth moved to Grosvenor street, and March 1736 when she became Mrs. Elizabeth Fox. A painting of circa 1741 shows the young Lady Ilchester walking with her tiny dog, ‘Bully’, in the park at Redlynch: whether this was the dog that wore this collar is impossible to know.