(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq.)
The Centrepiece illustrated (p. [247]) offers many points of attractiveness. It attempts magnificence and almost achieves it. The employment of three ostrich feathers in the design suggests at once the period of George IV. It has been employed in minor pieces by the silversmith as it was successfully used by Hepplewhite in his carved mahogany chair-backs. This is not the only example known with similar feather decoration so prominently featuring in the design. There is another example with outstretched plain branches having four cups so far removed from the central standard as to suggest gas-globes. The feathers by this arrangement are given an undue prominence and lose the graceful effect they have in the example here illustrated, where the curved branches with rich scroll ornament harmonize with the more prominent central support for the cut glass dish. The branches support four smaller cut glass dishes of really fine character. This cut glass work is of the most beautiful character and adds greatly to the grandeur of the piece.
As indicating the return of the Sheffield workers to designs prior to their own day the Chestnut Dish and Cover illustrated (p. [255]) offers conclusive proof. It has all the quietude of the work produced in the Queen Anne period. It depends for its effect on its form and the play of light on its surface. The twisted handles are terminated by lion masks. The foot is plain, but the edge of the rim of the body is quietly godrooned. The lid is surmounted by an oval knob, which the Staffordshire potters seized later as their own. The accompanying illustration shows a Fruit Basket, in date about 1810, and it resembles the work of Paul Storr, the London maker of that period. It is of simple basket form. Its broad rim emulates the technique of the basket maker in appearance and is equally necessary here in order to add to the strength of a design carried out in wire. The base is oval and stands on four claw feet in combination with scroll design as shown in other examples in candelabra and other work of the same period.
OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CENTREPIECE.
Hexagonal base on scroll feet. Urn-shaped wire basket, supported by three semi-nude female figures, surmounted by large circular cut-glass bowl.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.)
The Destruction of Old Dies.—The Sheffield firms were not wise in their generation. They committed a great blunder which they regretted for long afterwards. We do not say that this led to the extinction of the industry, for there were other very important causes which resulted in silver plating in the old style being superseded. But undoubtedly the destruction of old dies by a number of firms did lead to the constant production of work which might very well have been left undone. When the fashion for the classic designs of the Adam period and that immediately succeeding it was found to have been discarded, these old dies were melted down for the value of the metal. They represented many thousands of pounds outlay to each of the firms who had produced them, and nowadays, when reticence and sobriety of design have again come into their own after the long night of the early and later Victorian meaningless trivialities in design in metal work, these old dies would have won distinction by their re-employment. But they must remain a sad memory to those who know what once has been, and as so often happens in any industry dependent on the caprice of fashion, it is easy to be wise after the event.
The Melting Down of Massive Sheffield Plate.—Yet another deplorable misfortune overtook Sheffield plate. It was found that the copper in some of the old examples was valuable. Prices of copper had risen, and on the other hand silver had fallen. Certain enterprising firms dealing in metals began to collect all the old Sheffield plated examples they could lay hands on, and they ruthlessly melted them down. Quite considerable sums of money were made in this manner, and very few fine pieces were rescued from destruction. Though we heard of one instance of a dealer who was artistic enough to select certain examples that he liked for their beauty, and his family have them to this day. We hope his taste was sound. But the result was to aim a blow at collecting Sheffield plate, and to create many a hiatus which collectors find to their chagrin to-day.
The Passing of the Dinner Table.—With all due respect to modernity there is in middle-class households still to be observed an absence of taste in silver. There is silver present and enough of it. But not sufficient care has been paid to studying the fine forms and the exquisite creations of former generations of English silversmiths. Now and again great surprise is expressed at big prices realized at Christie's or elsewhere for fine specimens of plate. But as to the general education relating to the art of the silversmith and the really beautiful designs that have come down for hundreds of years as ornaments to the dinner table the average city merchant and the average man of affairs has surprisingly little knowledge. When he steps out of his own world into that of art he stumbles blindly and often wilfully. His pictures please him and he is often boastful concerning them—but there are others who know different.