A VICTORIAN SILVER-GILT AND ENAMEL THREE-PIECE TABLE GARNITURE
CAPTION: Elkington enamelled dessert service, published in J.B. Waring's Masterpieces of Industrial Art and Sculpture at the International Exhibition 1862, vol. 3, pl. 211
A VICTORIAN SILVER-GILT AND ENAMEL THREE-PIECE TABLE GARNITURE

MARK OF ELKINGTON & CO., BIRMINGHAM, 1864

Details
A VICTORIAN SILVER-GILT AND ENAMEL THREE-PIECE TABLE GARNITURE
MARK OF ELKINGTON & CO., BIRMINGHAM, 1864
Comprising a centerpiece and a pair of dessert stands; each on circular base with stylized foliage and anthemion in red, blue and black enamel, on three paw feet, the three scroll supports with guilloche band supporting an enameled anthemion canopy and beaded central dish ring, lacking glass, each marked on foot, the larger also marked on central support, also with Elkington stamp and 645 and 753, and PODR mark for 1862
The centerpiece 16 in. (40.5 cm.) high, the dessert stands 8 in. (20.4 cm.) high (3)

Lot Essay

This service represents an early foray by Elkington and Co. into the production of enameled work. Elkington and Co. exhibited a thirteen-piece dessert service in the "Pompeian" or "Graeco-Pompeian" taste at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. J.B. Waring's monumental Masterpieces of Industrial Art and Sculpture at the International Exhibition 1862 described this service as "remarkable for unusual elegance of taste in design, a judicious combination of colored enamels with silver, and a degree of artistic finish which are not too often found even in the best works of this class."

The service was designed by W. Albert Willms, who served as head of Elkington's design studio from 1855 until his death in 1899. Willms was awarded a medal for the artistic merit at the 1862 Exhibition. The Report of the Juries referred to the dessert service specifically, stating that "the effect is very beautiful" and "in excellent taste" (International Exhibition, 1862. Reports by the Juries on the Subjects in the Thirty-six Classes into which the Exhibition was Divided, London: William Clowes and Sons, 1863, Class XXXIII, 2, 4.)

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