A George III silver Tontine entree dish base

A George III silver Tontine entree dish base,

by Thomas Chawner, London 1786,

plain oval form, beaded border, lacking handles, the underside with names of men and women, the dates of their death and the ages they died, length 32cm, approx. weight 17.2oz.

The crest is possibly that of Martin.

Tontine is a loan given for life annuities with benefit of survivorship, so called from the inventor Laurence Tonti, a Neapolitan. There is an annuity, after a certain rate of interest, granted to a number of people, divided into classes, according to their respective ages, so that annually the whole fund of each class is divided among the survivors of that class, till at last it falls to one.