Sir Watkin’s purchase of silver plate was extensive. As Fairclough notes he is recorded as spending over £4500 on plate, much of which remained within the Williams-Wynn family until the sale at Sotheby’s in 1946.

Originally Sir Watkin held an account with Thomas Heming, goldsmith and jeweller to His Majesty the King. Here he purchased several items for his first wife, including a twenty-nine piece silver gilt toilet set now in the collection of the National Museum of Wales. Within the Adam collection there are nearly twenty silver-plate designs produced for Sir Watkin. As Fairclough notes this is an extraordinary proportion given that only around one hundred drawings for silver from the Adam office survive.

One of the earliest designs produced was for a punch bowl celebrating the success of Sir Watkin’s horse Fop at the Chester races of 1769 and 1770 (SM Adam volume 25/120). The bowl was executed with minor alterations and bears Thomas Heming’s mark. A further design for a punch ladle incorporating Sir Watkin’s crest (SM Adam volume 25/119) was also executed by Heming, with a bill produced for the piece in April 1773.

Following this, Adam designed the ‘Great Table Service’, which was executed between 1773 and 1775 by John Carter of London. Based at the corner of the Adelphi on the Strand, Carter was an associate of the Adam brothers. As Fairclough highlights Sir Watkin may have decided to close his account with Heming as mounting debts led to animosity between the goldsmith and his client. By 1773 Thomas Heming was pressing the Baronet for payment, in particularly concerning a £600 string of pearls that had been supplied. Fairclough notes a letter from Sir Watkin’s steward to his agent Francis Chambre dated 3 February 1774:

‘Mr Heming wrote Sir Watkin a very huffing letter here this day about his money. Sr W w’d be glad it was discharged as soon as you can, he has found out that Mr Creswell is making the new service, else I think he w’d not have wrote in the manner he did.’

Pieces designed by Adam and known to have been executed include a salt dish lined with blue glass and adorned with dolphins executed to SM Adam volume 25/110, with alterations. The finished piece omits the eagle ornamentation. A tureen executed to design SM Adam volume 25/123 survives in the collection of the National Museum of Wales, it was altered on execution and a stand was introduced in the nineteenth century. Sauceboats (SM Adam volume 25/111) were also executed along with candelabra to the design SM Adam volume 25/125.

As Fairclough states the full extent of Sir Watkin’s silver service is not known but 16 dishes executed to designs SM Adam volume 25/113-15 are held at the National Museum of Wales. Further records note the execution of a coffee pot in August 1776 which may have been to design SM Adam volume 6/94, but its whereabouts is unknown. A pierced pickle stand was also supplied to Sir Watkin in January 1777, which may have been based on Adam’s designs SM Adam volume 6/107 and 25/112.

Fairclough notes that in total Joseph Creswell charged £2,408, 18s for the execution of the ‘Great Table Service’.