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Mrs. Wright’s ‘Brown Betty’
On July 8th, 2009 myfamilysilver wrote on the subject of Uncategorized.
Down among the leatherwork, embroidery and other contributions by amateur lady craftswomen to the Home Industries’ Exhibition at the Waldorf Hotel, London, in April 1908, Queen Alexandra was attracted to a little glazed earthenware teapot. This traditional ‘Brown Betty‘ was no ordinary article, however, because the exhibitor, a Mrs. F. Wright, had decorated it with a ‘perforated Silver Casement, beautifully designed, made in two parts.’ The point was that the silver mount could be removed for cleaning.
The mounting of ceramics and other materials was nothing new; splendid examples survive from all ages, including beautiful old Chinese vessels with late 16th Century European silver and silver-gilt mounts. More recently the enterprising London silversmith Joseph Angell experimented with the idea in his 1851 silver four-piece ‘Aesop’s Fables’ tea and coffee service, which had an intricate frosted silver ‘jacket,’ allowing for the use of the set to be either plain or decorated. Elkington & Co. Ltd., the patentees of the electroplating process, on the other hand, developed a method of imparting very thin silver cagework mounts by electro-deposition to fancy articles, chiefly glass. Not so popular in England, this type of decoration was enthusiastically employed by many American silversmiths.
In a modest way, Mrs. Wright achieved success with her patent (no. 28,295), no doubt encouraged by royal patronage, because examples are known hallmarked between 1908 and 1911. Indeed, she supplied the teapots in four sizes, with the mounts in a variety of patterns, priced between 12s. 6d. and £5 5s.
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One of Mrs. Wright's silver-mounted teapots from an advertisement, The Play Pictorial, London, 1909, no. 88, vol. XV, p. xxii
Mappin & Webb’s first electric kettles
On July 5th, 2009 myfamilysilver wrote on the subject of Uncategorized.
Cudgelling my brain into action over this little essay, I decided to make a cup of coffee. With the freshly-boiled kettle in one hand and a mug in the other, it reminded me that heating water had not always been so easy. Turning to a copy of The Sketch, the London-based magazine without which no fashionable drawing room would have been complete during the course of its publication from 1893 to 1959, I rediscovered an editorial, signed ‘Florence,’ of October 1894 in praise of Mappin & Webb’s attempts at harnessing the power of electricity, ‘the fiery, untamed steed of earlier days,’ to produce silver and electroplate kettles, coffee pots and hot-water jugs.
Mappin & Webb, then probably second only to Elkington’s as the British Empire’s largest manufacturing silversmiths and platers, had taken a bold line in making these very up-to-date devices ‘for the comfort and convenience of modern sybarites.’ At prices from £5 and upwards, depending on design and material, they were certainly not aimed at ordinary housewives.
Elsewhere we learn that an early electric kettle was exhibited by the American Carpenter Electric Co at the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893, but this was by no means the first.
‘Florence’ found Mappin’s kettles ‘an altogether fascinating arrangement,’ but clearly the firm had to wait some years to reap the benefit of its enterprise.
Mappin & Webb's electric kettle and hot-water jug, The Sketch, London, October 1894
Remembering Nelson
On June 30th, 2009 myfamilysilver wrote on the subject of Uncategorized.
Two interesting artefacts relating to Britain’s greatest naval hero have recently been listed at myfamilysilver.com. One is an antique silver vinaigrette engraved outside with a portrait of the admiral and decorated inside with a image of his flagship Victory. The box was one of a series of souvenirs made to commemorate his death at the battle of Trafalgar. I’ve seen other similar boxes on the market before and it has always amazed me how quickly entrepreneurial silversmiths could move in the early nineteenth century. This box, which is being sold by Tennants Auctioneers on 17 July, was hallmarked in Birmingham (at the time the world’s capital for making such mementoes)  within weeks of the battle in 1805. Presumably, a blank box was kept for just such an historic occasion! With interest in Nelson still high after the 2005 bicentenary celebrations of the battle, expect lots of competition for this charming box.
The other relic has a more intimate connection with Nelson. This is a very rare gold and enamel memorial ring bearing the initials N (beneath an baron’s coronet for Lord Nelson) and B beneath a ducal crown (for duke of Bronte-the title awarded to Nelson by the King of Naples).  The ring is one of a very small number of similar mementoes ordered by Nelson’s executors after his death and distributed among his closest family and friends. A list of the recipients still exists in the British Library. Again, I have seen other examples appear at auction, and they always provoke furious competition in the saleroom.
I can’t think of any other major British historical figure (except, perhaps, Winston Churchill) who has this effect in the market probably because Nelson’s story was so extraordinary, his love affair with Emma Hamiltons so moving, and his death so dramatic that he commands international attention.
Scandal on Antiques Roadshow!
On January 21st, 2009 myfamilysilver wrote on the subject of Latest News.
If you live in the UK, did you catch the “Antiques Roadshow†on the BBC last weekend?
Among the usual family bric-a-brac and occasional gem, there was a rather intriguing antique silver tray bearing the maker’s mark of Paul Storr. As you already know but if you didn’t, Mr Storr was the mega-star maker of the late Georgian and Regency period. He was also the only English silversmith to rival Paul de Lamerie in the fame game.
The tray was engraved with a inscription explaining that it had been presented to a civic worthy in the market town of Hertford in December 1830. The tray was otherwise bog standard for this date i.e. it had a heavy cast border and feet with elaborate chased decoration. All, however, was not quite as it seemed.
As specialist Ian Pickford patiently and lucidly explained to the viewer, the hallmarks on the tray were in keeping with the inscription. They were struck in 1799/1800 at the height of the neo-classical period when it was quite impossible for such a highly elaborate tray to have been made. Still with me? This is exciting stuff!
So what had happened? Well, after gently pointing out that its obvious later alterations made the tray illegal (!) Ian suggested that an earlier Storr piece (possibly a salver or dish) had been cut up and used as the basis of the tray.
For me, this explanation begged a bigger question because Storr was still very much alive in 1830 and surely no other silversmith would perpetrate such an obvious fraud? I also think it is inconceivable, given the circumstances, that the good people of Hertford would have knowingly ripped off the recipient with a dodgy gift.
More likely I’m thinking is that they went to the best silversmith in London (i.e Mr Storr) to buy the flashiest piece they could. Unfortunately, their budget didn’t match their high ambition so maybe the renowned (but naughty) Paul Storr himself sold them this cut-price pup.
Scandal! Discuss! What do you think?
John Culme, who for many years has been connected with Sotheby's Silver Department, is author of several books and articles, including The Directory of Gold and Silversmiths, 1838-1914, published in 1987, and co-author with Nicholas Rayner of The Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor. He is also a Liveryman of the Goldsmiths' Company, London.
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