拍品专文
An identical flask of 1851 is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This model was first manufactured by Lambert & Rawlings and exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 where the firm was awarded a Prize medal for their 'carefully-executed, elegant and novel silversmiths' work' (Report of the Juries, p. 516, quoted in John Culme, The Directory of Gold & Silversmiths, vol. I, London, 1987, p.282).
According to the exhibition's official catalogue, it took twelve weeks to produce it and another two weeks for the gilding and finishing. The flask was purchased by the Fine Arts Commission for the nascent collection of the Museum of the School of Design at Marlborough House, as an example of good design. This institution, later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, established by Prince Albert with help of design reformer Henry Cole, opened to the public in 1852. Its mission was to educate British designers and manufacturers on how science and art could be successfully applied to the industrial arts (See Philippa Glanville ed., Silver, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1996, p. 63).
According to the exhibition's official catalogue, it took twelve weeks to produce it and another two weeks for the gilding and finishing. The flask was purchased by the Fine Arts Commission for the nascent collection of the Museum of the School of Design at Marlborough House, as an example of good design. This institution, later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, established by Prince Albert with help of design reformer Henry Cole, opened to the public in 1852. Its mission was to educate British designers and manufacturers on how science and art could be successfully applied to the industrial arts (See Philippa Glanville ed., Silver, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1996, p. 63).