(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.)
A fine specimen of a little known article of former use is illustrated on the same page. It is a Pipe Lighter, with pierced and escalloped edge. It has three ball and claw feet. It stands on a circular tray finely pierced having ball and claw feet. It might at first glance suggest to the collector that it was Dutch in origin, and suggests some form of charcoal brazier, but it is indubitably a remarkable specimen of old Sheffield plated work in date about 1783.
VIII
CENTREPIECES
THE CENTREPIECE
THE DESTRUCTION OF OLD DIES
THE MELTING DOWN OF MASSIVE SHEFFIELD PLATE
THE PASSING OF THE DINNER TABLE
CHAPTER VIII
CENTREPIECES
The centrepiece—The destruction of old dies—The melting down of massive Sheffield plate—The passing of the dinner table.
The centrepiece was the pièce de résistance; it made an imposing feature with its fruit which was to be served at dessert; it has developed later into an object for floral decoration standing as a monument of colour on the table, and was in more modern usage combined with lights when the old candelabra were considered to be out of date, and before the modern electric candelabrum made its appearance. Accordingly, we find massive decoration and strong bold design in most of these centrepieces. The Frontispiece illustrates an especially fine example with ten baskets of glass and the twisted branches are constructed to give the massive piece a lightness and a grace, although it was necessary to have a certain solidity to carry its heaped-up delicacies. There is a fine balance in this example and it is typical of the openwork centrepiece as distinct from a more massive form introduced when an ambitious bid made by Sheffield for recognition in carrying out the modelled figures and other elaborate structures which became so prevalent in the first thirty years of the nineteenth century.
Another example produced in wire work in early manner, in date about 1790, is illustrated (p. [247]). This is on four ball feet and has a large basket at the top, vase-like in form, with handles. From the standard supported by three C-shaped branches are suspended four smaller baskets. Its lightness and flexibility of design are its noticeable features and there is a practicability too in the form as the small baskets with handles can be readily removed from the branches on which they hang.