SILVERWARE that once belonged to York-born author and traveller Sir Thomas Herbert is expected to fetch up to £4,500 at a Sotheby's auction next week.

Sir Thomas Herbert was one of the richest and most important York figures of the 1600s.

His wealth was so great that he owned three properties, including a house in Petergate, York, a house in London and an estate in Wales.

And he became such a good servant and confidante of Charles I that moments before the King was executed he gave Herbert his large silver watch.

Now a rare silver porringer - a small dish for soup or porridge - inscribed with the words "The gift of Sir Thomas Herbert" is coming up for sale at the London auction house on October 11.

According to experts at Sotheby's, the Commonwealth silver piece was made in or around 1650 by James Birkby and is expected to fetch between £3,500 and £4,500.

But there are unanswered questions surrounding the silver piece, as no one is sure who received the gift, and why.

Sir Thomas was born in York in 1606. His father was Christopher Herbert and his mother, Jane Akroyd, was from Foggathorpe in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

After studying at Jesus College, Oxford and Trinity College, Cambridge he became State Ambassador and then devoted much of his married life to literature, publishing a book in 1634 which chronicled his travels in Africa and Asia.

His writings also included a dissertation claiming that America was discovered three hundred years before Columbus by Madoc ap Owen.

Sir Thomas was later accepted by Charles I as one of the Grooms of the Bedchamber, a position he occupied up until the King's execution. He was rewarded for his faithful service by a baronetcy in 1660.

Sir Thomas died at his home in York on March 1 1681 or 1682 and was buried in the Church of St Crux, York, where his widow placed a brass tablet in his memory.

Updated: 10:59 Friday, October 05, 2001