MARK OF FREDERICK EDMONDS, LONDON, 1892

细节

A VICTORIAN SILVER NOVELTY TEA SERVICE AND TRAY**
MARK OF FREDERICK EDMONDS, LONDON, 1892
Comprising: a teapot, a cream jug, and a sugar bowl; shaped circular, each modeled as an owl, the body textured as feathers centering a dramatic brow above glass eyes, with two claw feet near the base, the handles scroll-form, the teapot with ivory insulators with a feather-form finial; the two-handled tray shaped rectangular on four ball feet, with owl head and claws at opposing ends and a feather border between, each marked on body and cover, teapot also marked on handle, tray marked on field
The tray 18 1/8 in. (46 cm.) long; 75 oz. 10 dwt. (2397 gr.) gross weight (4)

拍品专文

A similarly playful example of naturalistic hollowware by Frederick Edmonds and one of his partners, Thomas Johnson (the two worked from the firm Johnson, Sons & Edmonds from 1879 to 1898) sold Bonhams, Solihull, 4 March 2008, lot 99. Also bird-form, the lot was a pepper pot shaped as a wren, 1882. Another example of such novelty hollowware, a silver pepper pot in the form of a small brush bird, Thomas Johnson, 1883, during the Edmonds Johnson partnership, sold Bonhams, London, 6 March 2001, lot 1.

Frederick Edmonds's silver model of Soane's Bank of England, 1897, is another notable example of naturalism, sold Sotheby's, New York, 21 October 1998, lot 100. It seems that Edmonds was able to use naturalism, to create both lighthearted novelty silver with function (as in the present example) and realistic models for posterity, like Soane's Bank of England.

For more information on Johnson, Sons & Edmonds, see John Culme, The Directory of Gold & Silversmiths, Jewelers & Allied Traders 1838-1914, 1987, Vol. 1, pp. 260-261.