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Many histories of the Armada Dish claim that they are so named due to the fact that the originals were made from silver captured from Spanish treasure ships returning from the New World. While this is a romantic story, there is no proof for the theory and it is based on speculation around the relationship of Sir Walter Raleigh and his friend and colleague, Sir Christopher Harris.
Sir Christopher worked as an Admiralty official during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) and it was around this time that the dishes came into his possession, perhaps as a gift from Raleigh. Given the timing, it could be that the dishes were taken from the Portuguese ship Madre de Deus (Mother of God), captured by the English in 1590 when returning from the East Indies with a fabulous cargo of gold, silver, jewels and spices.
Other stories have it that the Harris family were rewarded with silver for being part of the fleet that defeated the Spanish armada and that already owning a few silver dishes, had more made to match them.
The Armada service is made up of twenty-six partly gilt dishes, each engraved on the rim with the arms of Sir Christopher Harris and hallmarked in London for the years 1581, 1599, 1600 and 1601.
Dishes like these would have been used in Elizabethan England as serving dishes on formal occasions. They could also be used to keep food warm; the smaller dishes being upturned and used to cover the larger dishes.
While attractive, very few functional items of silver like these have survived to the present day as they were often sold and melted down for cash or made into new pieces of more fashionable design.
The Survival of the Armada Dishes
The story of their survival is also a matter of speculation. Sir Christopher Harris died in 1625 without heirs. During the English Civil War in 1645, his family descendents held a command in the Royal Forces in Plymouth and it is believed, that to avoid seizure by Parliamentary troops, the owner at the time hid them ten miles from Plymouth in a cave in Yealmpton on Dartmoor. The secret of their hiding place died with him.
In 1827 three Dartmoor laborers employed by a Mr Splat of Brixham who wished to enlarge the cave for the storing of potatoes, discovered the dishes. The engraved arms on the dishes and the hallmarks proved of great use to the descendents of the Harris family, who were able to claim the dishes against the claims of both the Crown and the disappointed Mr Splat.
In June 1911, the family sold the Armada Dishes at Christie’s in London for £11,500. They became famous again and were copied by Silversmiths in London using the same distinctive and uneven hallmarking around the edge of the plates as on the originals.
Armada Dishes Today
Many other small changes have been made to reproductions, including making the bottom of the dishes less indented and having the rims plain instead of with two inscribed circles.
Silver Armada Dish from the Hersey CollectionThey are popular gifts and often presented as trophies at sporting events such as race meetings and since 1964 have been presented at the Badminton Horse Trials to riders who have completed the competition five times.
The Armada Dishes are now on display in the British Museum, who acquired them with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund for £900,000 – over £30,000 a dish. They can be seen here.
According to the size you would like for your Armada Dish, there’s no need to spend around £30,000 to acquire one or to own a winner at Ascot. We have a beautiful range to suit all pockets from less than £100 up to £850. You can find them on our website at Silver Armada Dishes.
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