OLD SILVER PLATED DISH RING.
Pierced ornament of floral design and scrolls. Date 1775. Made in imitation of Irish silver Dish or Potato Rings.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.)
Restlessness of invention seized the Sheffield and other platers. Old forms were discarded, not because they had outlived their usefulness, but because fashion demanded or appeared to demand something new. The decanter stand began to have its lip spread out more like a dish than like the early form of coaster. Some were decorated lavishly with scalloped floral design as in the example illustrated (p. [173]), in date 1820. An illustration of the vessel upturned shows the crowded character of the design. The wooden turned base has the usual silver stud or boss in centre. The adjacent example, fifteen years earlier, shows a finely moulded edge broadly fluted. The character of this example is not open to any criticism as to over lavishness of ornament. It is true it exhibits a newer style, but it holds its own as a fine and comparatively reticent piece of design.
The Dish or Potato Ring.—The Irish silversmiths were particularly ingenious in their pierced work. Will Hughes at Dublin about 1770 made some interesting pieces reflecting the sanest art. There was always a dignity and grace in the decoration which was strongly classical in its lines, embodying medallions and rosettes and festoons of drapery. The Dish Ring or Potato Ring is a form peculiar to Ireland. It was only made for a comparatively short period, and has been revived again as a modern memory of old fashions, though its use is not quite understood nowadays. These rings are stands upon which bowls were placed to prevent the hot vessel from injuring the surface of the mahogany table. They are also believed to have supported wooden bowls containing potatoes. Genuine Irish examples are always circular. Bowl and dish were synonymous terms in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, hence probably the term "Dish Ring." They were made as early as 1760. There is a marked example with the Dublin hall mark for that year, together with the maker's mark, Robert Calderwood. Large prices have been paid for examples of old Irish silver dish rings. £129 was given for an example hall-marked 1757, and other prices range from £50 to as high as £250; in view of their slight weight this works out in some instances at two hundred and thirty shillings per oz.
Examples of Irish work are sometimes apparently simple, but having such careful technique and skilful manipulation of the design as to give the greatest opportunity for the effective play of light and shade and silhouette. Another form more intricate embraced the use of birds and flowers and miniature pastoral scenes embossed, while a more simple form yet capable of fine character was that which confined itself to basket work with round or flat wire interlaced.
DESIGNS OF INKSTANDS.
From Pattern Book of eighteenth-century Sheffield platers' work; issued by J. Parsons & Co. about 1792. The left-hand examples with perforated lid are pounce boxes. The lower stand is priced at 30s., the others at 21s. each cash, and the book is signed "Jno. Green, escompte 30%."