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Lot Essay
William Smith was a Liverpool silversmith whose work was assayed by the Chester Assay Office. Their records list his address as 40 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool. The few pieces known to be by him are extremely unusual and appear to fall into two main catagories. M. H. Ridgeway in his book Chester Silver, 1837-1962, Denbigh, 1996 illustrates three pieces; a wine flagon of 1879, a casket of 1875, and a salt cellar of 1877, each are in a very distinctive Middle Eastern style with characteristic gold inlay. The second group, into which this service falls, consists of objects in the naturalistic style, the bodies of the vessels being formed from silver sheet chased to simulate leaves. A sauceboat and ladle and a sugar bowl with a pair of tongs, very similar to the present lot, are illustrated in C .Truman ed., The Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Silver, London, 1993, p.116. M. Ridgeway, op. cit., p, 141 records the possible existance of a tea set, possibly this lot. Smith was apprenticed to James Wordley of Liverpool, whose other apprentice, with whom he went into partnership, was the Liverpool silversmith and native of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Joseph Mayer. Mayer was noted for his antiquarian interests and his large art collection. This reportedly stemmed from his discovery, at the age of 14, of a hoard of Roman coins. One can speculate that the unsual style of Smith's work was perhaps influenced by pieces in Mayer's collection.