The tureen is decorated with blue underglaze lambrequins highlighted in gilt, bearing the full arms of the O’Dwyer family — D’or, semé de mouchetures d’hermine de sable, au lion au naturel, lampassé de gueules (et vraisemblablement armé de sable), rampant — surmounted by a helmet. The design is embellished with the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, a motif copied from the commission made for the King of Spain.
This tureen belonged to a dinner service and a tea and coffee service. This Catholic family of noble origin comes from County Tipperary in Ireland. Jean O’Dwyer was born around 1620 in Cashel, Ireland. He travelled to the Netherlands to study medicine at the University of Leuven, later settling in Mons to practise his profession, and entered the service of the King of Spain as a physician. He ended his career as the city physician of Mons. In 1686 he published in Mons the Querela medica, a treatise addressing medical errors and denouncing the dangers of the illegal practice of medicine — a work that was highly regarded by contemporary scholars.
Jean O’Dwyer’s wife, Catherine-Françoise de Braine, bore him at least one son, Charles, Baron of Thory in Ireland. Charles married Marie-Jeanne Hanon, and they had at least one daughter, Marie-Anne-Joseph, born in Mons in 1721. Marie-Anne-Joseph married Nicolas van Broechem, councillor to the Duke and Sovereign Count of Hainaut, Lord of Ransberg and Valvek. The couple’s son, born at Broechem, married at the Château de Buisseret in Seneffe Ghislaine Charles de Buisseret.
