SUGAR BOWL AND CREAM-PAILS.
Pierced sheet silver with blue glass liners.
LONDON, 1782.
LONDON, 1786.
LONDON, 1776.
(At Victoria and Albert Museum.)
Take another centre-piece, about 1775 in date (illustrated [p. 279]). Here are features equally interesting. The rococo form has become subdued. There are still branching curves, and plain baskets with interlaced work take the place of the floriated style candle-holders. The festoons with medallions indicate the classic style then in vogue. In this centre-piece the classic style is seen in combination with, almost in opposition to, the moribund rococo style. These may be compared with an earlier Irish centre-piece, 1740 in date (illustrated [p. 335]).
The Sugar-bowl
In the specimen illustrated ([p. 283]) the classic style is seen at its best. The body is decorated with festoons, rosettes, and the rim and foot have a plain bead ornament. The handles are snakes with the head terminating at the rim of the bowl. It suggests that it might be a bowl of Æsculapius rather than a homely sugar-bowl. Pompeii and Rome, translated through the brain of Sir William Hamilton, the Brothers Adam, and the metal-worker of the Louis Seize period, have each contributed to this composite style. It is not of the purity of form of silver vessels found in the tombs. It merely borrows ornament from classic originals; it is like Sir Bulwer Lytton’s translation of Horace, rather more Sir Bulwer than Horatius Flaccus. In date this is 1773 and was made by S. and J. Crespell. It belongs to the same period as the Sheffield silver candlestick illustrated on [page 235].
There is another sugar-bowl (illustrated [p. 285]), with the London hall-marks for 1786, showing the style Louis Seize à l’Anglaise which came into English cabinet design after 1793, when Sheraton published his book of designs. This is an exceptionally dainty piece of work. The classic influence is still to be observed, but changed into something more sprightly, savouring of the boudoir of Marie Antoinette, and the metal-work on tables and lock escutcheons in the Petit Trianon. It is especially a silversmith’s piece. It is a beautiful metal framework for a blue glass liner.