A massive centrepiece with stand on four richly moulded feet in French style is ornamented by heavily gadrooned architectural ornament. This supports three semi-nude female figures who form a column which is surmounted by a large urn-shaped basket ornamented with interlaced bands and floral pierced work. A heavy glass bowl of cut glass with serrated rim and facetted ribs completes a grandiose piece representative of the period about 1825. (Illustrated, p. [251]).
Other forms are found with peculiarities of design which win acclamation, though on the whole there is always in comparison with the silversmiths' art of a century earlier something undesirable, not so much as to what is lacking but what has been added. There is a departure from soberness and an attempt to give ornament a place whether ornament is necessary or not. This effort to be ultra-artistic more often than not over-reached itself and the results do not give the same æsthetic pleasure as those of earlier designers who know the golden rule in art—what to omit. But comparisons are odious. We take representative examples of a period and continue the study and give them the respect due, and when one finds an oasis in a desert of meretricious art one is profoundly thankful.
OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CENTREPIECE.
With finely-cut glass dish in centre, and five branches supporting smaller glass dishes. Elaborate scroll ornament embodying the Prince of Wales's feathers as central support. Date 1810.
(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq.)
OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CENTREPIECE.
Oval wire basket, with double wire handles on standard. Four smaller circular baskets supported from C-shaped branches. On scroll feet, with bar and ball ornament. Date 1790.
The two examples typify the ornate and the simple in design.