Attractive English armorial plate, with cobalt blue border and panels, inspired by the 
Chelsea Mecklenburg-Strelitz royal service.
This was made for Jonathan Rashleigh upon his marriage to Mary Pole Stewart in 1843.
 
He was the son  of William Rashleigh who  owned the MENABILLY Estate in Cornwall.
Served on the board of the Metropolitan Board of Works for St Pancras, London.
High Sheriff of Cornwall 1877, magistrate.
Was a keen numismatist, gardener and cricket player.
 
He firstly lived  in Cumberland Terrace, Regents Park. Sadly, Mary died in 1852.
Jonathan re-married in 1869, heiress Jane Elizabeth Pugh, purchasing Feniton Court in 1871.
Later that year, his brother died and he inherited Menabilly.
The pair inherited estates from LISSMORE, Ireland (Pugh).
The couple moved to Menabilly, the largest private estate in Cornwall, of 30,156 acres
in 1873. Owned by the Rashleigh family since the 16th Century.
 
It was leased to  Daphne Du  Maurier in 1943,  who  loved the house and
used it as inspiration for Manderley, the house in her novel 'Rebecca'.
As well as other novels.
"I paused, stung by the beauty of that first pink glow of sunrise on water but the path led on and I would not be deterred. Then I saw them for the first time – the scarlet rhododendrons. Massive and high they reared above my head, shielding the entrance to a long smooth lawn. I was hard upon it now, the place I sought . . My house of secrets. My elusive Menabilly.”