Francis Light’s “Silver Bason”?
H.S. Barlow’s short note examines a George III silver punch bowl that appeared on the London silver market, arguing it was likely a gift from James Scott to Francis Light, the founder of Penang (p. 117).
Summary
The bowl, cast by George Heming and William Chawner in London in 1780, bears the foliate initials “IS” on one side and a Malay inscription beneath two clasped hands on the other. Barlow traces the long friendship between Light and Scott, who met aboard HMS Argoant in 1761 and remained close associates through Light’s negotiations with the Sultan of Kedah and the eventual establishment of Penang in 1786. Light’s 1794 will bequeathed to Scott “a Silver Gurglet and Bason,” and Barlow speculates that the bowl in question is the “Bason” referred to in that bequest (p. 119).
The Malay dedication, rendered in non-standardized romanization, translates as “As with the hands, so with the heart: From the time we first met, let it be the same unto death.” Barlow notes that two words in the text, bersua and andainya, are identified by Winstedt as Penang usage, and that the proverb appears nowhere else in Malay literature. The combination of the monogram IS, the date, and the Penang-specific dialect features leads Barlow to conclude the bowl was a gift from Scott to Light commemorating their friendship (p. 120).