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CHATS ON OLD
SHEFFIELDPLATE

COMPANION VOLUME BY THE SAME AUTHOR

CHATS ON OLD SILVER

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. The Marks stamped upon Silver
II. Ecclesiastical Plate
III. The Mazer, the Standing Cup, the Flagon, the
Tankard, the Beaker, the Wine Cup
IV. The Salt Cellar
V. The Spoon
VI. The Posset Pot, the Porringer
VII. The Candlestick
VIII. The Teapot, the Coffee Pot, the Tea Caddy
IX. The Caster, the Sugar Bowl, the Cream Pail, the
Cake Basket
X. The Cream Jug
XI. Scottish Silver
XII. Irish Silver
Appendix. — Tables of Date Letters, London (1598-
1905) — Table of Differences in Shields, London
(Elizabeth to George V) — Illustrations of
Marks, London, Provincial, Scottish and Irish

OLD SHEFFIELD TLATED CENTREPIECE.
On circular base, with nine plated wire baskets for glass dishes on spiral branches.
Date 1775-1780.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.)

Frontispiece.

Chats on
Old Sheffield Plate

ARTHUR HAYDEN
AUTHOR OF " CHATS ON OLD SILVER," " CHATS
ON OLD CLOCKS," ETC.

WITH FRONTISPIECE AND 58 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

INCLUDING 5 PAGES OF MAKERS' MARKS

NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

First published ig2i

C\R\W

(All rights reserved)
PRINTED B» GREAT BRITAIN

TO MY FRIEND
WALTER IDRIS,
IN APPRECIATION OF
KINDRED RECOGNITION

PREFACE
Many readers have importuned me to write a
companion volume to my Chats on Old Silver,
to complete the chain of evolution of the metal-
smith's art in regard to silver plate and silver
plated ware. Accordingly this volume appears
as a complementary and companion volume to
that on " Old Silver," and although the former
describes the history and character of the silver
smiths' work from Elizabeth to Victoria, the
present volume covers a much shorter period,
approximately a hundred years, when the plater's
skill, in what is now generally known as old Sheffield
Plate, of superimposing a thin sheet of silver on
a copper base, won a triumph in the great art
of simulation until it was superseded by the
modern electro-plating process.
The invention was discovered and first practised
at Sheffield, but it soon covered a wider area, and
plated ware by fusion and rolled' was made at
Birmingham, London, Nottingham and elsewhere.
But it still retains the name of Sheffield Plate,
and nothing can remove this title from the public
mind, although it is a misnomer. " Sheffield
7

8 PREFACE
Plate " is Sheffield solid silver duly assayed at
the Sheffield Assay Office, which has existed
since 1773, and bears the crown as the town
mark together with the maker's initials and the
date letter, the same as sterling silver plate
assayed at London, Birmingham, Chester, Edin
burgh, Dublin, or any other of the assay offices.
Sheffield Plated Ware is a copy or simulation of
real plate. It was, as this volume shows, pos
sessed of considerable artistic qualities, it was
fashioned by craftsmen who were masters of a
clever technique, and it is, if not a lost art,
certainly an art not practised in the old methods
nor with the same exactitude nowadays, and as
such it is worthy of the serious attention of the
collector. As to its artistry purists may cavil at its imita-
tivene 3. Although " imitation is the sincerest
form of flattery " the contemporary silversmiths
of London and elsewhere were far from flattered.
They began to be alarmed at the growth of the
manufacture, and protective Acts of Parliament
were passed to safeguard the interests of silver
smiths against competition by silver platers.
In regard to technique I have given sufficient
details to enable collectors to identify their pos
sessions and to take a further interest in details
of craftsmanship.
By permission of the Board of Education I
am reproducing several designs from the copper
plate illustrations of the old Catalogues and

PREFACE 9
Pattern Books issued to buyers of their wares
on the Continent of Europe by the leading firms
of Sheffield in the eighteenth century.
In regard to information concerning the manu
facture of plate by fusion at Dublin I am under
an obligation to Dudley Westropp, Esq., of the
National Museum, Dublin, for notes embodied
herein relating to the importation of Sheffield
plated ware into Ireland and its attempted manu
facture there.
I have also to acknowledge the kindness of
G. Harry Wallis, Esq., F.S.A., of the Nottingham
Museum and Art Gallery, for the inclusion of
illustrations of several examples.
The Corporation of Sheffield have allowed me
to have special photographs taken of examples
exhibited in the Public Museum, Sheffield, and
I am indebted to the Curator, E. Howarth, Esq.,
for his courtesy in enabling this to be carried out
successfully. I have had access by the kindness of collectors
to several representative collections. I am espe
cially indebted to B. B. Harrison, Esq., for
enabling me to illustrate herein many fine examples
from his choice collection.
To Walter H. Willson, Esq., I have to express
acknowledgment for allowing me to reproduce
illustrations of specimens of old Sheffield plated
ware that have passed through his hands for
many years, and for much information afforded
me in connection with the old technique.

10 In regard to marks on old Sheffield and
other plated ware, in view of strictures on
marks laid down by Acts of Parliament, I
have come to the conclusion that marks on old
Sheffield plated ware are somewhat negligible,
as they lack the authoritative exactitude of
those placed by law on silver plate. There
were marks when the Sheffield makers simulated
silver marks till they alarmed the silversmiths
and were stopped by statute. Then came a
hiatus. Then again they adopted trade marks
plentifully found, but these marks are not
always found on examples of the best period.
So in adjudging old Sheffield plated ware, marks
have a subsidiary place, and they are accorded
a subsidiary place in this volume.
I submit this volume unhesitatingly to lovers of
old Sheffield plated ware as a carefully considered
exposition of what was produced for a hundred
years, consisting of fine design, exquisite balance,
and wonderful technique, till plating became a
scientific process and electro-plating became of
common usage. But this is modernity.
ARTHUR HAYDEN.

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE . . . . . 7
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . . 13
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION . . . . -17
*
CHAPTER II
EARLY DAYS (THE INVENTION OF SILVER-PLATING BY
FUSION AT SHEFFIELD) . . . -43
CHAPTER III
CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS . . -79
CHAPTER IV
SALT CELLARS AND MUSTARD POTS . . -133
CHAPTER V
CAKE BASKETS, DECANTER STANDS (COASTERS), DISH
OR POTATO RINGS, INKSTANDS AND TAPER
HOLDERS . . . . . . 159
CHAPTER VI
TEAPOTS, TEA AND COFFEE SETS, TEA KETTLES,
COFFEE POTS, SUGAR BASINS . . .187
11

12 CONTENTSCHAPTER VII
PAGE
SOUP TUREENS, HOT WATER JUGS, THE SUPPER TABLE . 217
CHAPTER VIII
CENTREPIECES .... . 243
CHAPTER IX
CLOSE PLATING . . . . • 259
APPENDIX, MARKS ON OLD SILVER (1753-1840) . 27 1
„ MARKS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE . 285
INDEX ...... 295

ILLUSTRATIONS

Old Sheffield Plated Centre-piece

Frontispiece

Chapter I. — Introduction
Soup Tureen and Fruit Dish carved in Pear- wood.
Wedgwood Dessert Basket and Dessert Centrepiece
Group of Silver Lustre Ware and Glass Candlesticks

PAOE
• 29
• 33
• 37

Chapter II.— Early Days
Knives, with Medallion of Shakespeare . . -Si
Wine Label, Buttons . . . 51
Group of Patch Boxes ... . 55
Candlestick, 1775, from Old Pattern Book (iSth century) . . 65
Candlestick, 1795, Old Pattern Book (18th century) . 69
Candlesticks, 1797, Old Pattern Book (iSth century) . 75

Chapter III. — Candelabra and Candlesticks
Candlestick, 1785
Candelabrum, 1800
Candelabrum (7-lights), 1820
Candelabrum (5-lights), 1810,
Candelabrum (2-lights), 1790
Candelabra, 1790
Candelabrum (Single twist), 1790
Candelabrum (Double twist) .
Candelabrum, 1795 ; Candelabrum, 1790-1795
Candelabrum, Small, Candlestick, Lyre Design
Candelabrum (3-lights), 1805 ; Candelabrum (4-lights)
Candelabrum (3-lights), 1820. 13

1810

83879193
97
101 103
107 111"3 "7
121

14 ILLUSTRATIONS
Candelabra and Candlesticks — continued
PAGE
Old Print Serena (after Romney) Chamber Candlesticks . 123
Table Candlesticks, 1765, 1770, 1795 . . .127
Table Candlesticks, 1780, 1790, 1795 . . . 129
Table Candlesticks, 1810, 1820, 1830 . . .129

Chapter IV. — Salt Cellars and Mustard Pots
Salt Cellars, from Old Pattern Book (18th century) . 137
Salt Cellars, from Old Pattern Book (18th century) . 141
Mustard Pots, from Old Pattern Book (18th century) . 145
Mustard Pots, 1775, 1785, 1790 . . . .149
Mustard Pots, from Old Pattern Book (18th century) . 151
Pepper Casters, Group of . . . . 155
Mustard Pots, Group of . . . . 155

Chapter V. — Cake Baskets, Decanter Stands,
Dish Rings, Inkstands, Etc.
Cake Baskets, Wire Work, 1800, 1810 . . .163
Decanter Stands (Coasters), Group of, 1785-1790 . . 167
Decanter Stands (Coasters), Group of, 1805, 1810, 1815 169
Decanter Stands (Coasters), Group of, 1805, 1820 . . 173
Butter Dish ...... 175
Dish or Potato Ring ... . 175
Inkstands, from Old Pattern Book (18th century) . 179
Taper Holders, from Old Pattern Book (18th century) . 183

Chapter VI.— Teapots, Tea Kettles, Coffee Pots,
Sugar Basins

Teapot, 1792, from Old Pattern Book (18th century)
Teapot and Tea Caddies, Cake Basket
Tea and Coffee Sets, 1810, 1820
Tea and Coffee Sets, 1825, 1830
Tea Urn, 1810 .....
Tea Kettles and Stands, 1805, 1820
Coffee Pot, French, Silver-plated; Sugar Basins, Pierced
Work . . . . . . 211
Sugar Baskets, 1825 . . . . . -213

191 193197199
203 207

ILLUSTRATIONS

15

Chapter VII. — Tureens, Hot Water Jugs, Etc.

Soup Tureen, 1805

. 221

Soup Tureens, 1815, 1825 .

. 225

Soup Tureen, 1815 .

. 229

Hot Water Jugs (2) .

. 229

Entree Dishes, 1815, 1825 .

• 233

Hot Water Jug, Adam style, 1770 .

• 235

Toasted Cheese Dishes, 1800, 18 10 .

• 239

Pipe Lighter, 1783 .

• 239

Chapter VIII.— Centrepieces
Centrepieces, 1790, 1810
Centrepiece, with Female Figures
Chestnut Dish; Fruit Basket, 1810

¦ 247
• 251
¦ 255

Appendix Marks on Silver Plate
Marks on Old Sheffield Plate

275. 279, 283
287, 291

I INTRODUCTION IMITATION AS A FINE ART
ECONOMIC SUBSTITUTION
EUROPEAN IMITATIVENESS
PARALLELS IN ENGLISH CRAFTSMANSHIP
EARLY PLATING
SILVER PLATERS AT SHEFFIELD

17

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Imitation as a fine art — Economic substitution — Euro
pean imitativeness — Parallels in English craftsman
ship—Early plating — Silver platers at Sheffield.
Imitation is no new thing in art. Indeed it
may be advanced as an axiom that no art worthy
of the name has ever come into being without
inheriting the traditions and technique of some
preceding motifs. Bizarre movements have at
one time and another seized artists and craftsmen,
they have become anarchist in regard to all
previous art postulates, and produced somewhat
chaotic and formless results. The fantastic jazz
in art circles known as L'Art Nouveau some
years ago, temporarily upset the balance of the
younger generation of designers, spent its force
in unchecked licence, and ended so ignominiously
that it is now entirely forgotten, nor has it
left any permanent impression upon succeeding
schools. Now and again imitation has been resorted to
by well-known masters to flagellate the taste of
their own day. Embittered by constant praise
19

20 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
of old works they have made imitations of old
masters' styles and foisted them on their critics
until at such moment they divulged their author
ship and pricked the bubble of the undue adora
tion of the ancients. Pierre Mignard fabricated
a Magdalen and through the complicity of a
dealer it was sold as a newly discovered Guido
to the Chevalier de Clairville. Presently it was
noised about that the painting was by Mignard.
Le Brun, the great painter, pronounced it to be
a Guido and in his best manner. The jest had
gone far enough, the owner, Mignard, Le Brun,
and the critics met to settle the affair. Le Brun
and the critics adhered to their belief in its
authenticity. Mignard protested otherwise, and
said he had painted the work over the portrait
of a cardinal, and as proof dipped a brush in oil
and disclosed the cardinal's hat. Le Brun, burst
ing with anger, satirically exclaimed, " Always
paint Guido but never Mignard." But the can
vases of Mignard and Le Brun both hang together
in the leading galleries of Europe.
Nor is this a solitary instance of the pique of
artists for lack of discernment in contemporary
criticism. Goltzius, that masterly exponent of
strongly graved lines on the copper, produced
and published six prints in the style of Albert
Diirer, Lucas van Leyden and others, and one,
the Circumcision, was sold as one of Diirer's
finest achievements. These six engravings of
Goltzius are known among his work as the " master-

INTRODUCTION 21
pieces." They are certainly masterly imitations,
and he executed them to show his critics that
though his was a new style, yet he could if he
chose slavishly follow the manner of the old
masters. These are instances of imitation used
ironically as a weapon to ppur scorn on the
mediocrity and want of knowledge of critics.
In pictures there have been whole generations
of imitators and copyists. The continent in the
eighteenth century was flooded with sham Cor-
reggios, Claudes, Poussins, and Cuyps, and many
English painters, afterwards well known, did not
disdain to make copies for the dealers of old
masters' pictures. David Allan, called the " Scot
tish Hogarth," was an adept in copying chalk
drawings from the old masters ; and many artists
eked out a pitiable existence as copyists while
waiting for the public to acclaim their original
work. John Jackson copied the head of Reynolds
for Chantrey which could have passed for the
original by Sir Joshua. A Rubens he painted
in the presence of the students of the Royal
Academy was acclaimed as faithful to the original.
He was unequalled in such facsimile imitations.
Henry Liverseege, in the early days of the nine
teenth century, copied Vandyck, Rubens, and
Teniers with such skill that few could say which
was the original and which the copy. Two
pictures, one by Sir Edwin Landseer, and the
other a copy, were to be sold on successive days
at auction. The painter, strolling in to the auction

22 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
room on the day before the copy was sold, mistook
it for his own work.
At the galleries of the Fine Art Society, in
Bond Street in 1875, an exhibition was held of
a series of facsimiles of Turner drawings in the
National Gallery lent by Ruskin and executed
for him by Mr. Ward. Of these replicas, Ruskin
said in a note : " I have given my best attention
during upwards of ten years to train a copyist
to perfect fidelity in rendering the works of Turner,
and have now succeeded in enabling him to produce
facsimiles so close as to look like replicas —
facsimiles which I must sign with my own name
to prevent their being sold for real Turner
vignettes." Economic Substitution. — But imitation has
many phases. Modern photography in copying
the great works of old masters has made it possible
to study their works with exactitude in the
dimensions of black and white, and if the work
is an etching or an engraving the reproduction
claims a closer relationship with the original.
The art of engraving from painters' work is imi
tative to the extent that it depicts the same
subject and takes its initial inspiration from the
painted canvas. But it claims a much higher
regard — the great school of interpretative engravers
translated painting into terms of black and white.
Economically, therefore, it will be seen that
there is a real reason why imitative art, on what
ever plane it finds itself, should hold its place.

INTRODUCTION 23
In a broad sense it has had a mission. It is true,
as Goethe said, that " There are many echoes
but few voices " ; but the echoes have their value
too until they reverberate into nothingness and
new voices arise. As a substitute, therefore, for
unattainable works of art any medium that will
so successfully simulate the original as to convey
the lines and the grace, the colour and the harmony,
though in a lesser degree than the original, is to
be welcomed for its own sake.
There are many occasions when sacrifices have
had to be made and when prototypes have been
destroyed and substitutes have arisen which have
artistically filled the hiatus, if only for the time
being. For instance, the extravagance of
Louis XIV in regard to sumptuous silver
passed all bounds. At a f&te at Versailles in
1668 on each side of the royal buffet was elevated
on a portico ten feet high a grand silver gueridon
bearing a massive silver girandole which lighted
the buffet, accompanied by numerous large silver
vases. On the table and steps of the buffet, which
reached the height of twenty-five feet, were
arranged twenty-four massive bowls of fine work
manship — these were separated by as many large
vases, cassolettes and girandoles of great beauty.
There were on the table twenty-four large silver
jardinieres full of flowers, in front was a great
silver cistern shaped like a shell, at the two ex
tremities were four guendons, six feet high, sur
mounted by silver girandoles. Two other tables

24 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
for the ladies were similarly equipped with master
pieces of the silversmiths' art. •
In 1688 the Grande Monarque needed money
to carry on his wars, and he issued an edict for
bidding the manufacture of such massive silver,
and sent all his plate to the Mint. So all this
fine work, designed, made by Claude Ballin,
Pierre Germain, Montars and other celebrated
craftsmen after designs by Le Brun, was melted
down ; happily the pieces were first drawn by
the artist goldsmith Delaunay and their forms
are preserved. The king made it compulsory
that the fine plate of the nobility should be sacri
ficed too, and in consequence most of the fine old
silver was melted down.
But here comes the imitative note. The age
of sumptuous silversmiths' work was followed by
an age of fine pottery. Beautifully decorated
earthenware and porcelain became fashionable.
Rouen made a special service for Louis XIV, and
a great impetus was given to the art of the fac
tories of Moustiers, Marseilles and Nevers, and
thus the nobles of France had their banquets
from the clay of the potter instead of from ,the
vessels of the silversmith.
As will be shown later the relationship between
the art of the potter and that of the silversmith
has always been somewhat closely allied. The
designs of the one have, although not necessarily
adapted to a differing technique, been boldly
taken and assimilated in results that leave their

INTRODUCTION 25
note of incongruity to be criticized by collectors
and connoisseurs to-day.
European Imitativeness. — In order to arrive
at a closer appreciation of the niceties of imitation,
perhaps it would be better to commence by
attempting to understand what is originality and
where it can be found. But that would entail
a great amount of study. In porcelain one would
have to follow the attempts of the Dutch school
of potters and bow down in admiration to Meissen,
where the first true porcelain was made in
Europe. All else is imitative, including Sevres
and Wedgwood and Worcester. Nor does imita
tion stand arrested at technique, it follows slavishly
the oriental prototype in design. We find pagodas
and Chinese landscapes, and little figures which
meant so much in a language of symbolism,
scattered promiscuously on Delft beakers and on
Bow cups. Wedgwood, in his Portland Vase,
copied a prototype of blue glass. In his classic
subjects in relief on his vases and his cameos
he builded on the reputation of Greek and Roman
types translated through the brain of John Flax-
man, and there was a school of potters who came
second-hand after Wedgwood and imitatively
carried on his classic style.
The whole of the school of decorating furniture
in lac is imitated from the East, and a poor
imitation at best.
What the glass-worker did at Venice was copied
over the Alps in Germany. It suffered in trans-

26 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
lation and finally became something new. The
bulbous appendages to German glass were the
crescendo note of the Italian more reticent orna
ment. When the Murano glass-worker added the
tiny griffin-like symbolized version of the small
sea-horse found in the Adriatic to the handles
of his tazzas, he added a touch of grace and beauty.
But the German developed these into chimerical
beasts. In an examination of European art one wonders
where imitation ends and where originality begins.
Originality unfortunately often begins just at
that point when the original touch of genius is
lost sight of and when banal excrescences are
added, meaningless and offensive.
But originality and fertility of design often
begin when experimentalists set out to produce one
thing and realized another, and commenced a new
technique and became original in so doing. The
search for the philosopher's stone was futile, the
old alchymists in their laboratories, though they
never found the means of transmuting baser
metals into gold, made experiments which begat
the results of modern science.
Impulses are carried out in various countries
in accordance with national limitations. The
East African negro who patiently covers a gin
bottle with bead-work, proudly displayed as
native art by a missionary society in London,
is obeying the instinct to embellish and add his
own genius to that of the alien. He knows the

INTRODUCTION 27
value the white man puts on the spirit bottle,
and he worships afar off at the same shrine.
Parallels in English Cratf smanship. — In
regard to Sheffield plated ware, if it be advanced
that it was imitative of old silver and therefore
negligible, we must claim as a parallel old English
earthenware, where, although the technique differed
from that of the potting of porcelain, it did simulate
porcelain, and examples of the one are found in
replica of the other. As to production the reason
for imitativeness is often to effect economy.
Nor should this be anathema in art. Undoubtedly
Staffordshire and all its products struck hard at
the English porcelain factories. But, in spite of
its initial imitativeness and its wary regard for
competitive lines, it did win a path of its own.
There the parallel ceases because earthenware was
made in England prior to porcelain.
Imitativeness in various arts is common
enough. The glass-worker and the potter copied
the silversmith. The cabinet-maker was indebted
to both and vice versa. We find acanthus orna
ment in wood and in metal, the strapwork of
the Tudor carver on wood and on silver. The
cupid in metal on the Stuart clock case is dupli
cated in the stretcher of the chair carved in wal
nut, and is found in stone at Hampton Court
and St. Paul's in similar ornament. Wedgwood
snatched the topographical designs from copper
plate engravings to decorate his service for
Catherine II of Russia, depicting English country

28 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
seats and views. Chippendale borrowed from the
Chinese, and echoed Marot, the French designer,
in his original designs which burst upon the town
in his Director.
Nor does it seem to trouble the collector of
china overmuch that Worcester copied oriental
models and even used a spurious Chinese mark,
that Bow boldly proclaimed itself as " New
Canton," and copied Worcester, and that Lowes
toft copied both. The invention of transfer
printing upon china is claimed by Worcester,
by Liverpool and by Battersea, and all three
employed designs which were not original. The
whole school of designs transfer-printed upon
china is imitative, many of them had already
appeared as illustrations to books.
Take another art, that of stipple engraving
printed in colours. Here indeed is an imitative
art. An engraving in black and white is a trans
lation of a subject in colours. When printed in
colours it sets out to be imitative of another art.
But collectors have not been shy to give as much
as four figures for some of these eighteenth cen
tury colour prints, greater prices even than the
original paintings would bring under the hammer.
The subject is illimitable and provocative of much
argument. As interesting examples showing the versatility
of designers, and that potters and silversmiths
and woodworkers not only touched at many
points but actually assimilated designs more

SOUP TUREEN AND I.ADLE CARVED IN PEAR-WOOD.

FRUIT DISH AND STAND CARVED IN PEAR-WOOD.
(At the Wedgwood Museum at Etruria)
29

INTRODUCTION 81
proper to another technique in which they were
working. The technique of the metal workers
should have little to recommend its adoption by
the cabinet-maker, yet we find tea caddies in
Chippendale's Director which have details cer
tainly more fit to be executed as mounts by the
French ormulu workers than by the English
wood-carvers, even though in soft mahogany.
Josiah Wedgwood availed himself of many sug
gestions from other fields than that of pottery.
A Soup Tureen and Ladle carved in pear-wood is
at the Museum at Etruria to prove this excursion
of his for models. This illustration (p. 29) clearly
shows a design, although executed in wood, having
certain ornaments which more properly belong
to the technique of the silversmith.
Another carved pear-wood model is that of a
Fruit Dish and Stand. Here again there peeps
forth not so much the technique of the wood-
carver as the peculiar and more easily obtainable
ornament of the metal worker. It might be a
Sheffield plated Decanter Stand or Coaster.
Josiah Wedgwood's collection of shells pro
vided him with many a model for his cream
ware dishes. He has used the small flatfish
escallop like shells — Pholus Mstatus, Pectem Japoni-
cum, Area Antiquat and others, with great effect
and crudely suggested the natural colours. In
these the silversmiths helped themselves liberally
to Wedgwood's models and we find innumerable
single shell designs prevalent since their adoption

32 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
in pottery by Wedgwood. It would similarly
appear that they were equally indebted to him
for another of his bold replicas of nature in the
fine Dessert Centrepiece (illustrated, p. 33). As
spoon-warmers and for other purposes the silver
smith found this model from old Josiah's con-
chological collection remarkably practical and
accordingly lost no time in imitating it.
Another Wedgwood piece, a Dessert Basket
illustrated, p. 33) proves that Josiah had his own
back, for the pierced ornament is distinctly taken
from the silversmith and is more proper to his
art than to that of the worker in clay.1 " One
can trace the motives of much of his work, both
as to form and decoration, in the collections of
various kinds which he was amassing, and in his
constant intercourse with the metal-workers of
Sheffield and Birmingham. To the former source
he was indebted for the designs derived from
objects of natural history, particularly shells and
plants ; to the latter source he owed many shapes
and methods of decorative treatment which were
used for silver plated ware." His introduction
of diapers and other conventional designs in
pierced and perforated work come straight
from the Sheffield silver platers, and this style
of ornamentation done in the same county as
Sheffield, at the Leeds pottery, was carried to
its extreme limit by Messrs. Hartley Green
& Co., who became the most successful imitators
1 Josiah Wedgwood, by Professor Church, 1903.

WEDGWOOD CREAM WARE DESSERT BASKET.
Showing fine pierced work.
(Reproduced by the courtesy of Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood &* Son.-.

WEDGWOOD CREAM WARE DESSERT CENTREPIECE.
Designed from Josiah Wedgwood's collection of shells.
(In the Museum at Etruria.)
(Reproduced by the courtesy of Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons.
3.3

INTRODUCTION 35
of Wedgwood's cream ware, about the year
1783. The illustration (p. 37) shows the competitive
repetition of design contemporary with Sheffield
plate. The potter found earthenware, covered
with a fine platinum glaze, was a colourable imita
tion of silver plate. If the squire had his plate
and persons of lesser degree more economically
inclined had their Sheffield plate, the cottager
could have a fine, glittering array of silver lustre
vessels. Nor was the glass-worker behindhand in
coming into the field, as the illustration shows.
Early Plating. — In early days silver was used
sparingly before the Spanish fleets from South
America had poured silver into Europe. Ancient
drinking vessels of wood such as the mazer, a
drinking bowl much like a punch bowl, were
decorated with silver bands. Cocoa-nut cups
were similarly decorated. By the end of the
sixteenth century, solid silver had replaced most
of these forms for use in the spacious days of
Elizabeth. The early records show that certain
goldsmiths were guilty of mals outrages. In the
fourteenth century gold was debased by mixing
it with glass, silver by adding lead or fine sand.
Latten and brass vessels were silvered and passed
off as being of solid silver. One Edward Bor in
1376 was summoned before the mayor and
aldermen of London to make answer " that he
had silvered 240 buttons of latone and 34 circlets
of latone for purses called gibesers (gipcieres)

36 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
and had maliciously purposed and imagined to
sell the same for pure silver in deceit of the
people " ; both he and a confederate one Michael
Hakeneye were sent to Newgate prison. Another
case of John of Rochester in 1414 is recorded
where he counterfeited mazer bands in copper
and brass, plated over with silver.
It is interesting to read that " no artificer nor
another other man shall gild nor silver any such
locks, rings, beads, candlesticks, harness for girdles,
chalices, hilts nor pommels of swords, powder
boxes, nor covers for cups made of copper or
latten, upon pain to forfeit to the King one hundred
shillings every time, and to make satisfaction to
the party grieved for his damages. But that
(chalices always excepted) the said artificers may
work ornaments for the Church of copper and
latten, and the same gild or silver, so that always
in the foot or some other part of such ornament
the copper and latten shall be plain, that a
man may see whereof the thing is made for to
eschew the deceit aforesaid."
As to the hall marks on silver * the series of
Acts of Parliament relating to the assaying,
marking and regulating wrought plate and ascer
taining the standard " for the good and safety
of the public," covers a long period. British hall
marks possess a reputation extending over three
hundred years. Heavy penalties were exacted
for fabrication of marks. In France in 1724 an
1 See Chats on Old Silver, by Arthur Hayden, pp. 25-63.

GROUP OF SILVER LUSTRE WARE.
Coffee Pot. Basin. Teapot.
The Staffordshire potter's imitation of silver.

GLASS CANDLESTICKS.
Late eighteenth century.
37

INTRODUCTION 3d
edict was passed declaring sentence of death
against those who counterfeited stamps or insert
or solder stamps on other plate.
It is thus evident that baser metals had from
time immemorial been plated with silver, and,
given an unprotected public, many such frauds
could be perpetrated by skilful and unscrupulous
craftsmen. In fact they were perpetrated. In
1767 a working silversmith was prosecuted by
indictment upon Stat. XXVIII Edward I and
Stat. VI George I, cap. 11 for soldering bits of
standard silver to tea-tongs and shoe-buckles
which were worse than standard and sending
the same to the Goldsmiths' Company Assay
Office at London in order fraudulently to obtain
their marks to the same. In France from 1753
to 1759 a set of regulations to be observed by
silversmiths in the profession of their art enacts
that " They shall not make the rims turned over
full of solder, in form of hammered edges to basins,
dishes and plates ; nor shall they under pretext
of joining, solder on to them other bottoms."
The methods employed prior to the invention
of the plating by fusion and rolling in sheets at
Sheffield was known as French plating. Through
out the eighteenth century clock cases were
silvered by this method, and successive layers of
silver could be applied to any thickness required.
Silver Platers at Sheffield. — The platers set
out frankly as a school of copyists to imitate
silver plate. They laid a thin imposition of
3

40 CHATS ON Old SHEFFIELD PLATE
silver on copper and rolled it and dealt with the
sheets as if they were solid silver. They suffered
from many diasadvantages which they eventually
overcame ; they competed directly, and more
directly, than did the Staffordshire potters with
the silversmiths. The potter snatched the silver
models and so did they. But he had less reason
than they because he left his proper technique
as a worker in clay in so doing. It was no new
thing to plate baser metals with silver or with
gold. But the method by which it was accom
plished and the rolled-out sheets were new. To
rush into a general industry to expend great
capital on it, to launch it on the market, to com
pete with the richest and closest corporation of
goldsmiths in the world, was a new and audacious
venture, and this Sheffield did, and the designs
partook of the character of the finest produced
by the experienced workers in silver plate.
It is an incongruous situation wherein this
school of imitators, who set out diffidently to
simulate silver and were presently met by severe
statutes of the realm and with severe penalties
for producing marks simulating those of the assay
offices, overrode the tide that set against them
and were finally acknowledged by statute as
genuine craftsmen to be protected in a great
industry, and Sheffield obtained an assay office
of her own, with overlordship over her platers.
In comparison with the other assay offices
both Sheffield and Birmingham own titles which

INTRODUCTION 41
seem to convey that the assay offices came into
being as a protective measure ; they were to be
watch-dogs over the silver platers in their district.
In 1773 there were, among others, the " Wardens
and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths
of the City of London," the " Incorporation of
Goldsmiths " of Edinburgh, and the " Fraternity
or Company of Goldsmiths " of Dublin. But the
assay offices established at Sheffield and Bir
mingham were to be " The Guardians of the
Standard of Wrought Plate," which is suggestive
in the circumstances.
Competitive rivalry in art has often ended in
the undoing of a particular school where imitation
was pushed to fulsome lengths. When the wood
engraver simulated the actual cracks in the can
vases of the subjects he was copying on his block
he showed a decadence which shortly led to his
extinction. But the Sheffield platers never added
blemishes of their own to the silver they copied.
They produced faithful copies. They selected
fine examples and they stood supreme in what
they set out to do, until, by a later process, they
were superseded.

II EARLY DAYS

THE INVENTION OF SILVER PLATING BY
FUSION
THOMAS BOULSOVER OF SHEFFIELD (1704-
1788)
A WORLD OF KNICK-KNACKS
THE SHEFFIELD SILVER-PLATING PROCESS
EARLY SHEFFIELD PLATED PRODUCTIONS
JOSEPH HANCOCK
THE RISE OF THE BIRMINGHAM AND OTHER
SILVER PLATERS
THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE GREAT PERIOD
OF SHEFFIELD PLATING
CONTEMPORARY SILVERSMITHS AND THEIR
ART

CHAPTER II
EARLY DAYS
The invention of silver plating by fusion — Thomas
Boulsover of Sheffield (1704-1788) — A world of
knick-knacks — The Sheffield silver-plating process —
Early Sheffield plated productions — Joseph Hancock
— The rise of the Birmingham and other silver
platers — The commencement of the great period
of Sheffisld plating — Contemporary silversmiths and
their art.
It was in the year 1743 that a fortunate accident
led to the discovery that copper and silver could
be fused together, and happily the value of the
momentary happening led to the further develop
ment of the process and the final perfected in
vention of plating silver on copper which laid
the foundation of a great and flourishing art
industry which brought wealth and renown to
Sheffield and extended to other centres. The old
method of plating continued with various im
provements for a hundred years until superseded.
During the years 1750 to 1790 some of the best
examples were issued and a stream of fine work
duplicating the silver plate of the period, and
not excluding examples simulating earlier Queen
45

46 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
Anne styles, was poured out. Its excellence of
craftsmanship and its cheapness not only won
the approval of the English public but attracted
the attention of Continental buyers, and con
temporary with the catalogues of Joseph Wedg
wood issued in French and other languages we
find that the Sheffield and Birmingham silver
platers similarly issued illustrated catalogues with
designs showing what they were producing.
Thomas Boulsover of Sheffield (1704-1788).
— According to some accounts Thomas Boulsover
was a button maker, a spur maker or a cutler,
probably he was all three, and employed in the
making of these and other metal articles then
manufactured at Sheffield. He is spoken of as
an " ingenious mechanic." He was probably a
practical workman who had a small shop where
articles were brought for repair. It was in
connection with the repair of a knife handle which
was partly copper and partly silver that owing
to an accident in the soldering the copper and
the silver fused together. Although to his credit
he immediately realized the possibilities of his
discovery, he was possibly too poor a man to do
more than carry out further experiments in a
small way and make buttons and snuff boxes
and minor articles by his process. His name is
sometimes spelt as Bolsover, but it would appear
that in the records at Sheffield he registered under
the name of Thomas Boulsover and Co., which is
possibly more correct ; although in days when

EARLY DAYS 47
duchesses spelled their title as " dutchess " matters
of a letter or two were not considered very im
portant even in names.
The following extract from the Derby Mercury,
September 17, 1788, is an interesting obituary
notice of Boulsover :
" On Thursday se'night died at Whitely Wood,
near Sheffield, Mr. Thomas Bolsover aged eighty-
four. This Gentleman was the first Inventor of
Plated Metal : which like many other curious
Arts was discovered by Accident. About the year
1750 (at which Time he kept a Cutler's Shop at
Sheffield), Mr. Bolsover was employed to repair
a Knife Haft which was composed of Silver and
Copper ; and having effected the Job, the cement
ing of the two Metals immediately struck him
with the practicability of manufacturing Plated
Articles, and he presently commenced a Manu
facture of plated Snuff Boxes and Buttons. Con
sequently from Mr. Bolsover's accidental Acquire
ment, the beneficial and extensive Trade of plated
goods had its origin. He has been justly esteemed
one of the most ingenious Mechanics that Sheffield
can boast." The name Bolsover, says the writer
in the Derby Mercury, suggests a Derbyshire origin.
There is little doubt that among the earliest
articles to which Boulsover turned his attention
were buttons. Silver was in the time of Boulsover
being sold at approximately six shillings per oz.,
and, in view of the cost of solid silver articles, the
invention of a presentable process that would

48 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
lessen the cost came at an opportune moment.
It must be remembered, too, that there was a
duty of sixpence per ounce upon silver. In 1784
there was an additional duty of sixpence imposed.
In 1804 the duty was increased to one shilling
and sixpence per ounce, and it is interesting to
note that in 1815 by 55 George III, cap. 185
the counterfeiting of the King's head duty mark
was made a felony punishable by death. Nor
did the invention, although coming at a ripe
moment when economies were desirable, seem
likely to receive financial support ; for the estab
lishment of an industry on a great basis, for the
very same motives which necessitated economy,
prevented capital from being embarked on what
might have been a hazardous enterprise. At
that time the country was in a disturbed condition.
In 1742 Walpole's administration came to an end.
His fall was occasioned by his foreign policy,
which was based on friendship with France. He
was succeeded by Carteret. His " Drunken Ad
ministration," as it was termed, was not likely
to instil confidence in the country. He cared
solely for foreign politics. " What is it to me,"
he said, " who is judge, or who is bishop. It is
my business to make kings and emperors and to
maintain the balance of Europe." In 1744 France
declared war against England, and preparations
for war were made in America and India. In
1745 Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the Young
Pretender, landed in Scotland, was given a public

EARLY DAYS 49
banquet by the ladies of Edinburgh, defeated
Sir John Cope at Prestonpans, and marched
across the border and through England as far
as Derby. His troops must have passed through
Sheffield, and with civil war in the heart of the
country, and at his threshold, Boulsover no doubt
quietly pursued his vocation and added to his
experiments. He made snuff boxes and buttons,
and patch boxes, and possibly buckles, and waited
for a better day.
It is interesting to notice the inauguration of
our two great china factories about this date.
Derby was not likely to commence a new industry
with the Pretender rattling his sabre in the city
in 1745. But we find Worcester commencing
operations in 1751, followed by Derby in 1756.
There is stated to have been a political significance
in the advent of the former. It appears that in
the cathedral city in spite of its loyalty to the
reigning house there was a growing Jacobite
influence. It was thought that the establishment
of a factory would enable the Whigs to win the
election contests which had gone to the Jacobite
party. But we do not remember to have heard
any such association with Sheffield in regard to
the establishment of the Sheffield plating industry.
It seems to have been purely a trade venture
and supported by local influence and capital.
It is not generally known that for a long period
Sheffield has made use of Swedish iron for the
manufacture of the best steel. Nor is it public

50 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
property that " Made in Sheffield " frequently
meant that razors, knives, surgical instruments,
scissors, etc., were made at Solingen in Germany,
and sent as " blanks " to be finished in Sheffield.
The Master Cutlers of Sheffield cannot have been
aware of these happenings. We speak of pre-war
days when we have seen at Solingen much that
should shame Sheffield.
In the early knife handles illustrated (p. 51)
the sheet is very thin, and the design is stamped
and both halves of the handle soldered together.
The thin pointed steel blade is characteristic of
old examples. It had not yet arrived to the
stage of the trade mark with name of firm " made
in Sheffield." There is a fault in design. The
object of ornament is to be seen and admired.
When these knives were set on a table, the head
of Shakespeare in the medallion was upside down.
This is a small detail, but details such as these
were carefully studied at Sheffield at a later
date and ornament used to its fullest capacity.
In regard to the particular design of the head
of Shakespeare. There is a reason for its exist
ence. It comes straight from the days of the
great Shakesperian revival by David Garrick,
where in 1741 he acted Richard III for the
first time. Quin and Cibber were outshone by
this new actor, who drew the fashionable world
of St. James's to his little house in Goodman's
Fields. He became an idol. In 1742 with Mrs.
Woffington he acted in Dublin for a season and

OLD SHEFFIELD KNIVES.
With steel blades and plated handles with medallion of Shakespeare,

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED BUTTONS. OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED WINE I.ABEL.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.)
51

EARLY DAYS 53
created a great sensation. In 1747 he was joint
lessee of Drury Lane Theatre. A Chelsea figure
represents him as Richard III and, in complement
to the new worship of Shakespeare who had been
forgotten for a hundred years. Addison had
omitted him from his " Account of the greatest
English poets," and Steele did not include him
in his essay " A Dream of Parnassus " in the
Spectator. Sheffield, quick to seize an idea of
marketable value, stamped the Httle medallion
of Shakespeare on her knife handle with an eye
to fashionable demands of the day.
Buttons were also a strong feature in early
days, and continued as a leading feature to the
end of the Sheffield plated period. Firms were
established in London who carried on this branch
till quite a late date. It is stated that a plated
button was the first article made by Boulsover.
In Ireland John Roche, of Usher's Quay, Dublin,
also produced buttons in this style. The designs
were stamped according to order. The illustration
(p. 51) shows the type with copper shank firmly
soldered on to the back. Possibly Army buttons
of the same date were similarly made. Collectors
have a field here for search and research.
Wine labels, or as they were termed, " bottle
tickets," offer, if not great variety of style of
decoration, certain curious indications as to the
wines and liqueurs they were intended to label.
We illustrate a label used for " Madeira." But
some of the others were for wines either

54 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
now known under more familiar names or for
gotten altogether, such as : " Shrub," " Bucellas,"
" Xerez," and others.
The patch boxes (illustrated, p. 55) show the
type of work executed in the early days. The
plating was carried out on the exterior ; the in
terior of these examples is bare copper. The
left-hand example shows in its ornament the
swirls and curves of the rococo style which
Chippendale adapted and spiritualized in its
translation. The right-hand specimen owes some
thing to Dutch influence and to tobacco boxes
which were common at the period. It is a genre
subject, with the figure of a man standing and a
lady reclining on a sofa. The middle patch box
is in tortoiseshell and silver, and represents the
fable of the Fox and the Crane. The sides and
base of this box are plated, and, as in the case
of the others, the interior is copper.
A World of Knick-knacks. — The world of
London and Bath had set the fashion in trinkets,
as much affected by the masculine sex as by
ladies of fashion. Buckles, clasps, etuis, snuff
boxes were made in gold or silver gilt. But
one Christopher Pinchbeck, who died in 1732,
a " Clock and Watchmaker and Toyman," as he
terms himself on his trade card with his en
graved portrait, became a specialist in reproduc
tions and replicas. It is of interest to quote the
advertisement of the son of Pinchbeck in the
Daily Post, November 17, 1732, as showing

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED PATCH BOXES.
I. Rococo design with floral 2. Tortoiseshell, inlaid with 3. Rococo border, with
ornament. Interior of silver. Fable subject : figures of man and
box copper. Fox and Crane. woman. Interior of
box copper.

DETAIL OF ABOVE.
[In Ike collection of B. B. Harrisoir, Esq,

55

EaRly days sr
what articles he made of a metal in imitation of
gold, and with this as a parallel it will be possible
to draw a conclusion as to the class of articles
of a similar character which were made at Sheffield
at a slightly later period :
" To prevent for the future the gross Imposition
that is daily put upon the public by a great Number
of Shopkeepers, Hawkers, and Pedlars, in and
about this town, Notice is hereby given that the
ingenious Mr. Edward Pinchbeck, at the Musical
Clock in Fleet Street, does not dispose of one
grain of his curious metal, which so nearly resembles
Gold in Colour, Smell, and Ductility, to any
person whatsoever ; nor are the Toys made
of the said Metal sold by any one person
in England except himself : therefore Gentle
men are desired to beware of Impostors, who
frequent Coffee Houses, and expose to sale
Toys pretended to be made of this Metal, which
is a most notorious Imposition upon the Publick.
And Gentlemen and Ladies may be accommodated
by the said Mr. Pinchbeck with the following
curious Toys, viz. Sword-Hilts, Hangers, Cane-
Heads, Whip-Handles for Hunting, Spurs, Equi
pages, Watch Chains, Coat Buttons, Shirt Buttons,
Knives and Forks, Spoons, Salvers, Tweezers for
Men and Women, Snuff Boxes, Buckles for Ladies'
Breasts, Stock Buckles, Shoe Buckles, Knee
Buckles, Girdle Buckles, Stock Clasps, Necklaces,
Corrals." The advertisement goes on to enumerate
" Watches and Astronomical Clocks, which newly

58 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
invented Machines are artfully contrived as to
perform on several Instruments great variety of
fine Pieces of Musick composed by the most cele
brated Masters, with that Exactitude, and in so
beautiful a manner that scarce any hand can equal
them. They likewise imitate the sweet Harmony
of Birds to so great a Perfection as not to be
distinguished from Nature itself."
Pinchbeck articles are now collected. They
display fine workmanship and artistic decoration,
and true to the asservation of the inventor
they have kept their colour in a wonderful
manner. The Sheffield Silver Plating Process. — It has
been already shown that the superimposition of
silver and gold on baser metals was not an unknown
thing, and that many old statutes exist to prevent
such wares being substituted for solid gold and
silver plate. These earlier processes mainly
depended on washing or laying on successive
sheets or foils. The Boulsover process consisted
in cutting off from a solid bar of copper a rectan
gular piece some three inches wide, twelve inches
long, and about one inch in thickness. This was
pure soft copper and easy to work. Later an
alloy was made with the addition of a sixth part
of brass making the base or body harder. One
side of this copper block is carefully filed, extreme
cleanliness being employed to exclude any dirt
from the surface. A silver sheet of slightly lesser
dimensions, after being made thoroughly flat

EARLY DAYS 59
and kept perfectly clean on one side, is laid on
the copper with the two prepared surfaces fitting
upon each other. The silver was about a quarter
of an inch in thickness. Over the silver is laid
a piece of sheet iron the exact size of the silver.
The three sheets are then tightly bound together
by means of iron wire. The whole is then put
into a furnace until it is red hot ; at the exact
moment when it is considered by the skilled work
men that the two metals had properly fused
together the block was carefully taken from the
furnace and put aside for cooling. It is obvious
that if the workmen were careless and did not by
constant practice know the correct length of time
to allow the operation to continue in the furnace
the result would have been a failure. The silver,
instead of exactly fusing with the copper, would
run over the edges and leave patches where the
two metals had not properly adhered. It is the
same in old processes such as the tempering of
a sword. There are no exact rules, the crafts
man must have a sure eye and be quick to act
at a second's notice.
Those who have witnessed the cabinet-maker
in the exactitude with which he commands his
mastery over glueing parts, as is experienced in
the manufacture of air-craft parts, know that
given perfect conditions of temperature and glue
of indubitable character the parts cannot be
separated. Similarly in the Sheffield plating the
silver adhered to the copper base and remained
4

60 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
a component part and not a layer likely to be
disturbed by future bending or hammering.
The next stage in the process was the process
of passing these blocks under steel rollers in the
rolling mills. And during this operation it under
went several further stages of heating or annealing.
Here again the workman has to ascertain to a
nicety the exact moment to discontinue the firing,
otherwise all would be ruined and the silver be
burnt off the face of the copper. In glass blowing
similar technical difficulties render the art one of
great rapidity and quick judgment. At the last
stage, by an act of misjudgment, all the previous
work might be wasted and the piece turn out
a wreck. The fire is a capricious agent. In
pottery it is the same. Many a vase after being
elaborately painted by the artist and fired in the
ovens, owing to some accident, comes out a dis
torted and misshapen mass.
The result of this Sheffield plating was to pro
duce a sheet which could be manipulated in the
same manner as though it were solid silver. The
interiors of vessels, it is true, showed the copper,
but these were tinned till at a later date silver
was placed on both sides of the copper and fused
at the same operation in the furnace. In regard
to the ornament a good deal found on old Sheffield
plated ware was made by the use of dies, such
as feet, handles, knobs, and were cast in two
halves and soldered together prior to being affixed
in their positions on the articles. In other forms

EARLY DAYS 61
of decoration similar to that found on the silver
plate of the day the same technique was employed
in the repoussd work in producing a raised design
on the exterior, that is, by means of hammering
against a sand-bag, using a tool on the inside of
the vessel. Chasing and engraving is done on
the outside while the vessel is filled with sand or
with some other composition.
This technique is not confined to Sheffield plated
articles ; it is the technique of the silversmith,
where repousse work receives its striking force
by a tiny hammer from within the vessel ; chasing
with sunk lines, and elaboration and finishing the
repoussd design, is done from the exterior.
In regard to designs, the productions duplicate
some of the finest plate. At its best Sheffield
plate realized its artistic responsibilities. It did
not disseminate shoddy imitations of English
plate. Its copies had the saving grace of being
executed by men who understood the value of
the originals. They worked faithfully in a more
economic medium, but they did not debase the
original design, and they were too clever to add
meretricious touches of their own and mar work
which they must have loved or they could not
have copied it so truly.
Joseph Hancock of Sheffield.— Thomas Boul
sover claims our regard for his invention and his
steady application to it on a minor plane. But
Joseph Hancock took longer views. He was a
member of the Corporation of Cutlers in Sheffield,

62 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
and he it was who saw to what great uses the
new invention could be put if handled on a great
scale. He made candlesticks, teapots, salvers,
and many other more important articles, and by
so doing he raised the process above the snuff
box and button level and established commer
cially the great industry for which Sheffield has
become famous.
Mills were erected for rolling out the ingots,
skilled workmen were procured who had served
their apprenticeship as silversmiths in London
and elsewhere. Sheffield, almost concurrently
with the great impetus given to the making of
plated silver ware, began to make silver plate.
But such solid silver had to be conveyed to London
to receive the marks of the Goldsmiths Company
of London to denote its standard quality. In
regard to embarking on so novel an enterprise
as raising a great industry founded on the designs
of the silversmiths, there must have been many
forebodings as to legal possibilities. The laws on
the subject were very stringent. Persons had
been fined and imprisoned in the reign of George II
for manufacturing plate of lower value than the
standard. In 1741 one Drew Drury of London
stated that he was inadvertently concerned in
making a stamp resembling the " Lion Passant,"
that he had never made any use of it, and that
he had caused it to be broken. The Wardens of
the Goldsmiths Company did not accept his
confession and proceeded against him.

EARLY DAYS 63
Among exceptions not required to be assayed
were metal spouts to china, stone or earthenware
teapots and shirt buckles or brooches. But silver
shoe-clasps, patch boxes, salt shovels, tea strainers,
caddy spoons, bottle tickets (wine labels), and all
buckles except the above mentioned were, if silver,
to be assayed.
It is remarkable to find the Sheffield silver
platers somewhat incautiously flying in the face
of the protective legislation in regard to silver
plate and its marking. In fact, it appears that
they recklessly placed three marks on some of
the earlier ware resembling those on silver plate.
In 1773 a Committee of the House of Commons
was appointed to inquire into the manner of
conducting the several assay offices in London,
York, Exeter, Chester, Norwich, and Newcastle-
upon-Tyne. York, Exeter, and Norwich, it was
found, were not in operation and had closed down.
In regard to evidence a Mr. W. Hancock, a silver
smith of Sheffield, said that his work had been
injured by scraping. He went to the Goldsmiths
Hall of London and " gave some drink to the
Assay Master and scraper, since which time his
plate had been less damaged." Mr. Spilsbury
said that scrapers had the opportunity to deliver
to the assayer better silver than they scrape
from the work, and that the assayer had the
opportunity of favouring what silversmith he
pleased. When his plate had been objected to
he found that these difficulties were removed

64 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
on " giving drink at the Hall." This may be
said to have been in keeping with the old tradition
of the Goldsmiths Company of London, for we
read that in 1359 one of the members of the
Fellowship was found guilty of mals outrages.
He prayed the mercy of the Company and offered
them ten tuns of wine. He was duly forgiven
on paying for a pipe of wine and twelve pence
a week for one year to a poor man of the Company.
The Committee in their Report found in regard
to Sheffield and probably Birmingham that " the
artificers are now arrived at so great a perfection
in plating with silver the goods made of base
metal, that they very much resemble solid silver,
and that if the practice which has been introduced
of putting marks upon them somewhat resembling
those used at the assay offices shall not be
restrained, many frauds and impositions may be
committed upon the public."
The result was to draw the teeth of the platers
by appointing assay offices at Sheffield and Bir
mingham. The penalties laid down in the Act
of 1773 put an end to silver plate being marked.
In 1784 another Act was passed, 24 George III,
cap. 20, which had some interesting stipulations
concerning silver plated ware. " Whereas doubts
have arisen whether a Manufacturer of Goods
plated with Silver can make or strike his Name
upon such Goods without incurring the said
Penalty (one hundred pounds) : and by reason
of such Doubts the Manufacturers of Goods plated

Jmwm^^kmmklmMaiXi-diiiWMi^&m^i

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDLESTICK.
Designed in Adam style, 1775. From coppet-plate
engraving in old 'catalogue issued by SheHield
makers to the Continental markets.
(At the Victoria and Albert Museum.)
[Reproduced by permission of the Board of Education.)
65

EARLY DAYS 67
with Silver have been deterred from striking
their Names upon plated Goods, whereby a proper
Distinction betwixt plated Goods of the different
Manufacturers is prevented, and all Emulation in
that Branch of Business is destroyed : to the
certain and manifest Prejudice of the said Manu
factory. For obviating such Doubts be it further
enacted by the Authority aforesaid, that it shall
be lawful for any Manufacturer of Goods plated
with Silver within the said town of Sheffield, or
within One Hundred Miles thereof, to strike or
cause to be struck upon any Metal Vessel or Thing
plated or covered with Silver, his or her Surname,
or, in case of any Partnership the name of the
Firm of such Partnership, and also some Mark,
Figure, or Device, to be struck at the end of such
Surname, or other Name of Firm : such Mark,
Figure or Device not being the same or in Imita
tion of any Mark made use of by any Assay Office
established by Law for assaying wrought Plate,
without being subjected to any Penalty or For
feiture for so doing ; any Thing in the said Act
to the contrary hereof notwithstanding."
A later clause lays it down that " it shall be
Provided that every such Surname or Name or
Firm as aforesaid, shall be in plain and legible
characters, and struck with one Punch only."
The clause " within one hundred miles of
Sheffield " included Birmingham, which gave a
control to Sheffield ; but the severe rules as to
stamps being the surname or name of the firm

6s Chats On old Sheffield plate
made the marking of Sheffield plated articles a
cumbrous business and not much to the liking
of the silver platers, although it must be regarded
as a compliment that they were legally compelled
to mark their ware so carefully, apparently for
no other reason than that its resemblance to
silver plate was so strong that it might be
mistaken for the sterling article.
The Rise of the Birmingham and Other
Silver Platers. — What Joseph Hancock did for
Sheffield Matthew Boulton did for Birmingham.
Prior to 1773 the mark used consisted of three
stamps with two crowns and the letters B&F
(Boulton and Fothergill) ; in 1784 the mark
was two suns struck in duplicate and was regis
tered as M. Boulton and Co. at the Sheffield Assay
Office in accordance with the Act of 1784.
The 1773 Act (13 George III, cap. 52) made no
provision for the Sheffield and Birmingham platers,
but gave powers to the Sheffield and Birmingham
Assay Offices. Certain portions of this were
repealed, and provision made for the marking
of plated ware. But this revision only applied
to Sheffield and for some reason Birmingham
was omitted, therefore the Birmingham platers,
although silver could be assayed at Birmingham,
had to put themselves under the aegis of the
Sheffield Assay Office. Hence we find Boulton &
Co. registering at Sheffield.
At Nottingham the silver plating industry was
established, and in London it obtained so great

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDLESTICK.
¦From copper-pTate engraving issued by eighteenth-century Sheffield
plate makers to the Continental markets. Date 1795.
(At the Victoria and Albert Museum)
^Reproduced by fiei mission ofthe Board of Education)
60

EARLY DAYS 11
a stronghold that although it was born in Sheffield
it died in London, as the craftsmen, although
they found themselves somewhat moribund and
a gradually dwindling body, owing to the newest
invention from Sheffield — plating by electro-pro
cess — held on until some years after the new
invention had extinguished the older styles else
where, but in the end silver plating by fusion
and rolled plate work succumbed.
In regard to Ireland there is some evidence
that an attempt was made to manufacture silver
plate by fusion and rolling in the Sheffield manner.
But very Httle fused plated ware was actually
made in Dublin. Certain premiums were offered
by the Irish government for " light plate " made
in that country. Light plate evidently being
understood to be plated ware. There are numerous
notices and advertisements in Irish newspapers
from about 1760 onwards announcing imports
of Sheffield plated goods. There is no doubt
that a considerable amount of Sheffield plated
ware was imported into Ireland. The records of
one firm show that between 1784 and 1804 plated
articles to the value of £60,000 were exported
from Sheffield to Ireland. Although the Dublin
directories of the period show many names of
Irish " silver platers," this is not evidence enough
to establish the fact that any of these craftsmen
worked in rolled plate ; there is every likelihood
that they plated small articles in the old manner
and later, after the early years of the nineteenth

72 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
century, with the process known as " close plating."
The name " Sly. Dublin " appears on a steel
meat skewer plated with silver belonging to these
latter days. There is, too, the possibility that
some of the Sheffield platers actually exported
rolled plate in sheets, though there is no direct
evidence of this, as it would have been somewhat
suicidal to place in the hands of other artificers
the material to convert into what would have
been practically Sheffield plated ware although
made elsewhere.
But there is confirmation, although somewhat
meagre, that plating by fusion was accomplished
at Dublin, though apparently only practised to
a small extent.
In 1779 the Goldsmiths Company of Dublin
complained of the great amount of plated goods
imported, and in 1783 the Dublin Society offered
a premium of £150, being at the rate of 6 per cent.
on value of Irish plate and fight plated goods
manufactured in Ireland, by rollers, between
1782-3 and 1783-4.
The records show that on November 25, 1784,
the sum of £24 7s. was awarded to Christopher
Haynes, goldsmith, of Dublin, being at the rate
of 6 per cent, on the value of light plate goods
entirely manufactured by him in Ireland by
rollers, from ist July, 1783, to ist July, 1784 ;
value £405 17s. 3d. It is further noted that a
premium of £11 17s. 4d. was paid to John Lloyd,
goldsmith, of Harolds Cross, Dublin, being 6 per

EARLY DAYS 73
cent, on value of light plated goods manufactured
by him in Ireland by rollers, value £197 3s. 3d. ;
and also premium of £2 2s. nd. being 6 per cent.
on value of plated goods manufactured by him
in Ireland by rollers, value £35 ios. In 1792
" A Company of Manufacturers " in Abbey Street,
Dublin, advertise plated metal for Button Makers
at 4s. 4d. per pound.
The Great Period of Silver Plating. — Con
temporary with the growth of Sheffield plating
were influences which were very stimulating in
regard to the fine and the applied arts. The
quarter of a century from 1765 to 1790 teems
with rich inventiveness on every hand. In 1768
Sir Joshua Reynolds became the first President
of the Royal Academy, and he died in 1792.
His brilliant canvases, with their Titian , colours,
and his children as graceful as those of Correggio,
brought noonday into English art. Thomas
Chippendale's Director was published in 1754,
and the translations of great French styles accli
matized in this country. Horace Walpole built
Strawberry Hill in 1750. In 1793 Sheraton's
Cabinet Maker's and Upholsterer's Drawing
Book appeared. Between these points a great
influx of ornament and design burst upon the
country. Flaxman was holding a mirror to the
classic graces and Wedgwood was translating
them into clay. Brothers Adam classicized cer
tain parts of London. The Adelphi is typical.
David Garrick lived in the Adelphi Terrace ;

74 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
Antonio Zucchi painted his drawing-room ceiling,
and a white marble mantelpiece chimney piece
cost three hundred pounds. Great engravers were
working in mezzotint and in line : stipple engravers
under Bartolozzi's influence produced gems of
English art printed in colours. A great outburst
of work of permanent artistic quality stamps the
period. Nor were the silversmiths behind in
perpetuating glorious designs. Here then was
the fine field in which the Sheffield platers could
browse for inspiration. Their results justify their
existence. How great the industry became is reflected by
the series of Design Books issued showing the
patterns that Sheffield was able during a period
of training of less than twenty years to send to
the Continent and that, be it noted, in the days
of Louis Seize. The illustrations of Candlesticks
from these Design Books illustrated (pp. 65,
69, 75), are described in detail in Chapter III in
relation to their technique and artistic features
(pp. 86, 89).
Contemporary Silversmiths and Their Art. —
For ten years of the reign of George II, and from
1760 to for thirty years of the reign of George III,
English plate is remarkable for simple and
practical designs embracing the exuberant orna
ment from the hand of Paul Lamerie and imbued
with the classic spirit of Robert Adam. Its variety
is a noticeable characteristic, and silver plated
replicas carry on the tradition until the second

^-r-^J^-

J— *

... __ .

" '''"•-.

i;.,' i ¦ '..Li

— . !,^IUlli!y :.'.;¦--. .':¦ uf.\ ..¦.;'.. V...Y:.

.... l-v.'.I.^: ;.'

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDLESTICKS.
rrom old Pattern Book issued by R. C. & Co. (Robert Cadman & Co.) about 1797,
The prices of the above examples (written in ink) are given at 20s. and 45s.
per pair. (At the Victoria and Albert Museum.)
(Reprcc'iiced by permission of the Board of Education.)
75

EARLY DAYS 77
or decadent period when cumbersome and un
wieldy design overloaded ornament, and finicking
details choked the fine inspirations that had come
down from the past.
The cherubs' heads, the satyrs, the lion-masks,
and the engraved and pierced work of Paul Lamerie
extended from 1742. Thomas Gilpin was noted
for his fine scrollwork ; Peter Taylor has fine
designs embodied in tea caddies engraved with
Chinese figures and embellished with shell orna
ment. Isaac Duke with his sauce boats with
handles formed as dragons and rich chasing and
ornament holds high reputation. John Cafe,
Edward Wakelin, John Swift and George Wickes
all were of the middle eighteenth century and are
well known. Daniells, William Shaw in 1785,
Orlando Jackson and James Wilkes carried on the
traditions. Peter Archambo, who worked a decade
or two previously, had left a technique. The designs
of Elston of Exeter are still honoured. At Dublin,
R. Calderwood in 1750 and William Homer, of
Dublin, and John Williams, of Cork, twenty years
later were producing masterpieces of delicate
artistry. And before the decadence came William
Plummer and Paul Storr. It was therefore with
no misgiving as to choice' of rare design that the
Sheffield plate workers set out to immortalize
the work of these men with no less courage than
did McArdell and the great school of mezzotinters
in regard to the canvases of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Ill CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS
EARLY TYPES
THE ADAM STYLE AND ITS PROMULGATION
TO THE CONTINENT
THE CANDELABRUM
THE VARIETIES OF THE SPIRAL FORM
THE TRI-FORM CANDELABRUM
THE CHAMBER CANDLESTICK
THE EVOLUTION OF THE TABLE CANDLE
STICK

CHAPTER III
CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS
Early types — The Adam style and its promulgation to
the Continent — The candelabrum — The varieties of
the spiral form — The tri-form candelabrum — The
chamber candlestick — The evolution of the table
candlestick.
In commenting upon early types of Sheffield
plated candlesticks a good deal of past history
has to go by the board. One does not need to
discuss pricket candlesticks of ecclesiastical form.
Unfortunately the exquisite Stuart examples, the
symmetrically ideal forms of the Charles I period,
so rarely found, and the finely balanced types
of the Charles II, James II and the William period
pass — as they were never duplicated by Sheffield.
Sheffield commences with George II and Sheffield
ended with George III. Happily the banalities
of the early- Victoria era never encompassed her
craftsmen. Therefore, the early types of candle
stick belong to the days of George II. They
belong to the days when Boulsover looked to
Joseph Hancock, the master cutler, for inspiration,
and Joseph Hancock the cutler of Sheffield set
out on a true path. A certain modernity was in
5 «

82 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
the air. The year 1751 had only 282 days, and
the year 1752 only 355. The calendar was in
process of reform. Joseph Hancock's types of the
early days (we are speaking of 1750 to 1765) must
have been the ordinary types made by the great
silversmiths, though it may be imagined, as
though in leading strings, Sheffield gently pursued
her way with experimental copying.
To come to technique there were the edges
of the silver and copper plate, an ugly witness of
inferiority. These must be hidden somehow by
godrooned edges, of solid silver maybe, rather
than show the poverty of the rolled plate. If
they were cast then there were the seams to screen
from common observation. To this day the
seams denote the genuineness of the old plate.
Dies came into being. Portions were cast, orna
ments were soldered together and attached to
the article. At first there was always the factor
determinable enough by close inspection that the
silver was only on one side of the copper. The
interior of vessels was copper, which was tinned.
In candlesticks this was not a very formidable ob
stacle to successful imitation, as the nozzles could
be French plated and otherwise concealed. The
bottom could be plugged with a mahogany post
and filled with solder, could be covered with
shellac at the base and have a fine baize screen
from all obtrusive gazers. But Sheffield soon
got above and beyond any of these artifices.
It is curious how collectors have come to love

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDLESTICK.
One of a pair, with Bnely shaped facets, decorated with leaf ornament. D.ite 1785.
(In the possession of G. H. Wallis, Esq., F.S.A.)
83

CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS 85
the candlestick, possibly it is because it represents
something that vanished during the horrible era
of the gas chandelier and the paraffin lamp, and
has been resuscitated in later days in the form
of an electric chandelier or in electric standards.
Electricity has galvanized the old candlestick and
the antique candelabrum into life. The Dutch
hanging brass pendants are now one of the stock
lines of the electric fitter who furnishes the villa
in pseudo- Jacobean or pseudo-Georgian style.
The shopwalker or his satellites will pronounce
empirically upon styles with the surety of an
encyclopaedia. In consequence all electric lights
are hall-marked with " periods " : they are
" Adams " (sic), or " Chippendale," or " Sheraton."
Possibly collectors of another age may find
shoddy written over a lengthy period of our
modern fitments for illumination.
The Adam Style and its Promulgation. —
That Sheffield did great things in candlesticks is
shown by a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
One of the finest examples of the classic style
with urn shaped nozzle with classic pilaster column,
both urn and base decorated with festoons in
classic style, of the period of 1782, is a Sheffield
silver candlestick. Sheffield was undoubtedly
making fine silver candlesticks and candelabra
at this period, and this is not unimportant in
regard to the consideration of what she did as
an echo of such work. During the last twenty
years of the eighteenth century her output was

86 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
of the highest character. Since 1773, as we have
shown, Sheffield had stood on her dignity as the
proud possessor of an assay office with all the
newly acquired rights of silversmiths jealous of
infringements on so close a corporation. This
had, without doubt, an enormous influence on
the quality of the work perpetrated by the silver
platers. Sheffield made a bid to become a silver
smiths' centre and she has not lost her ancient
ambitions to-day.
In the illustration given (p. 65) of a candle
stick from a copper-plate engraving of pure
Adam style, in date about 1775, it is seen how
far Sheffield had advanced to be able to send
such pattern books with designs broadcast to
buyers of her ware on the Continent of Europe.
This and another illustration (p. 69) indicate the
class of candlestick Sheffield was prepared to
export. Sheffield had not snatched at renown,
she had won it. A series of Design Books of the
period, from which we reproduce illustrations,
establish the fact that Sheffield plated wares
were as acceptable on the Continent as being some
thing especially English, as were the equally
original products of Wedgwood in pottery, and
at a later date the Ironstone Ware of Mason,
where it is said that he inflicted more injury
upon the French potters than did the English
fleet under Nelson.
These are trade matters, but interesting withal,
as they show the rapid rise under careful and

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
With two lights detachable for use of standard as a single light.
Removable nozzles. Date about 1800. Showing signs of
copper owing to bad usage.
(In the collection of Author)

CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS 89
patient intuition of skilled craftsmen whose resplen
dent models tempted the Continent to buy our
replicas where perhaps the original work was
either not proffered for sale or was too expensive
for the continental market.
We give another illustration (p. 75) of two table
candlesticks, 1797 in date, sent Out, as the cata
logue states, by R. C. & Co. (Robert Cadman and
Company) . In one example we have the favourite
design of the ostrich feathers beloved of Hepple-
white and others in the chair backs of the same
period. The classic influence of Adam is waning.
There is nothing purely Grecian in the column.
The Ionic pillar has long since disappeared. We
have something as a substitute in design. The
Maltese cross as a novelty finds itself as a feature
in the design. It is composite, it is in a measure
feeble in comparison with previous designs. It
marks the oncoming period. It is just the sign
of something confused in the design. We shall
soon see something not only confused but ex
tremely mixed and utterly banal with false and
meretricious ornament, with little meaning except
that here it stands, as ornament or as attempt
at ornament, but as to balance or symmetry —
that has been irretrievably lost. The age of
decadence no one can explain. One marvels as
much at ineptitude as at beauty in design.
Happily the Sheffield designers went backwards
for some of their designs in a period that threat
ened decadence. The smaller of the candlesticks

90 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
(illustrated, p. 75) suggests the reticence and
simplicity of a brass candlestick of the Stuart
period. As such it must be regarded. It stands
quietly unassailable in its English dignity.
A fine clean-cut example, in date 1785, of pure
design, with facets sharply cut and decorated with
ancanthus leaf design in due subjection, is illus
trated (p. 83). The urn stem and the urn
nozzle determine the period, and the candlestick
stands on a fine round base. Its clear defined
reticience is almost like cut steel work on a minor
plane of the same period, such as frames to
cameos and later adapted to purses and chate
laines. Cut steel mounts to clock faces belonged
to the coming Empire days. Here, in this candle
stick illustrated, is an indication of facetted work
as clean cut as glass, which in its working and
in its technique is a metal too.
The Candelabrum. — Whatever may have been
the varieties of the hanging candelabrum in Dutch
interiors, finely wrought brass and copper with
a variety of designs always pleasing and so
attractive as to find a ready duplication as a
modern electric light candelabrum, we do not
find the table candelabrum at an early date in
England. As days went on it became massive,
and had, seven or eight lights. Old engravings
depict Jewish and other candelabra as standing
on the ground, sometimes of great height and
with many lights, but for domestic use their
acceptance as table or sideboard lights came in

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
Branched with seven lights. A squnre base wilh ball feet. Fluted decorations
on column. Date 1820.
(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq.)
91

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
With five lighls : on hexagonal base with claw feet. Nozzles urn-shaped, richly
decorated. Column with acanthus leaf and diaper ornamentation. Date 1810.
(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq.)
93

CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS 95
the midddle eighteenth century, in Georgian days
with great spread of mahogany and massive
furniture. They seem almost related to the
Adam resuscitation of classic candelabra on tripod
feet. But most of the massive Sheffield plated
examples bear relationship to Hogarthian pre-
Chippendale mahogany, and solid sideboards groan
ing with silver, engirt with monteiths and punch
bowls and all the equipments of a period when
members of Parliament hiccupped their speeches
in the House, and when fox-hunting and port-
drinking squires drank each other under the
table. The evolution of the candelabrum from
its simple form with two lights to its conclave
of twelve is as interesting as the evolution of the
gate-leg table during a somewhat longer period.
In regard to practicability, as has been pointed
out to the writer, some of the later replicas overdo
the number in the attempt to be ornate, and if
filled with candles and lighted they would burn
each other. This is an interesting fact as indi
cating that sometimes in his attempt to be original
the modern fabricator invents something that
could never have been used. For, after all, our
ancestors, however handicapped they were by
want of illuminative mechanism, were never so
foolish as to employ candelabra that would cause
guttering by one candle firing another on account
of its close proximity.
In considering candelabra, the ordinary branched
three-light candelabrum is interesting, and many

96 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
forms follow each other indicating the steady
progress onwards. The example illustrated (p. 87)
is capable of being used as a single candle or as
two lights. It is in the usual nomenclature of
the trade termed a three-light candelabrum, though
only two lights are capable of being used at the
same time. The nozzles are removable. Now
the removable nozzle was not introduced into
silver plate until about 1758, when the tall
Corinthian column types first had this invention.
But the example under notice has other indications
to place it about 1800. It has the slight sug
gestions of oncoming Empire style, the commence
ment of a return to austerity, a poverty of design,
and the urns and nozzles betray the newer forms
of ornament. The oval bases and the touch of
floriate ornament under the nozzle urns have
their indicative note. It will be observed that
the camera, with more penetration than the human
eye, has brought out the thinness of the plate,
and it is here represented in the illustration.
It denotes perhaps less of a delinquency on the
part of the plater or a flaw in his technique than
a grave indictment against generations of house
maids who have used metal polish which con
tained mercury or some other noxious compound
inimical to the longevity of the superimposed
silver. So here it is indicating a last stage of its
simulation and the base copper peeps forth
triumphantly. A glorious candelabrum of massive form branched

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
One of a pair. Two-light : about 1790. Fluted column handwork. Fluted leaf ornament
on cups, -with Gothic looped branches surmounted by an acorn.
(In the collection cf B. B. Harrison, Esq.)

97

CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS 99
with seven lights on square base with ball feet
is in date about 1820 (illustrated, p. 91). The
grease cups indicate its late date, and underneath
is the same bud-like floriate ornament we noticed
in the last example. But in addition to give it
yet a later date is the broken branch with ball
like ornament. It is a fine example, especially
noteworthy as being representative of a period
just before a decadence of design set in which
thrusts the collector out and freezes any interest
he may take in perfect technique by reason of
a tearfulness he has of banal design.
A splendid example of a candelabram with five
lights, one of a pair is illustrated (p. 93). The late
classic influence from Pompeii derivative through
French sources is here evident. The tripod
stand terminates on claw feet embellished by
a floriated winged design. The column has a
richness almost akin to the worker in ormulu.
The base is decorated with ancanthus leaf orna
ment, followed by ordinary fluting which breaks
off in the centre of the pillar. The upper portion
is decorated in a diaper pattern and the capital
is a fluted urn, from which spring the branches.
The grease pans are richly godrooned, and here
the feature underneath is noticeable, the little
circular boss beneath the pans. At a later date
the grease pan disappeared, but the little rosette
was left. This is especially noticeable in the
example in date 1800 (illustrated, p. 87). The
grease pans have become too diminutive to be

100 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
of use, but there is sufficient suggestion of their
presence left to disturb the fine proportions of
the urn above. The fluted branches have an
added ornament which it is charitable to believe
was placed there for practical reasons to give
added strength to the branches, but denotes a
wavering in design from exquisite, unbroken
curves. Ornate as this great candelabrum is,
possessing design carried out with cunning tech
nique, there are restless elements in its conception,
which mark it as belonging to a transition period.
The Varieties of the Spiral Form. — There is
something peculiarly interesting in following the
variation of spiral forms in the branched candel
abra from the early days until at the last they
sank into mediocrity and became in the last
stages little better than what was afterwards
the standard pattern of the mid- Victorian gas
bracket or gas chandelier, with its meaningless
branched arms and its fulsomeness of mere
tricious ornament, a form, be it said, actually
copied by the early electricians till they learned
better and walked serenely in the paths of old
design. It would appear that at first the spiral curl
of the branched candelabrum was in due sub
jection, that is to say, it was a well considered
part of a complete design. It fell within the
four corners of a set harmonious whole. It did
not detract from the whole by any eccentricity,
nor did it attract especial attention except as

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
With two lights : having branches with interlaced spiral design
as central ornairunt. Date 171,0.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
With two lights: having S-shaped branches interlacing at centre.
Dale l7c;o.

[By courtesy 0/ IVa/iei H. Willson, Esq)

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE CANDELAllRU.M.
Two lights, oval base, removable nozzles, fluted lobes, and single spiral branches.
Date J7^o.
(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq.)

103

CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS 105
a factor in an ensemble. For instance, take three
examples and examine them minutely. The first
is on one of a pair, in date 1790 (illustrated,
p. 97). The' convolutions of the spirals are
apparently intricate till one more closely realizes
that they approximate to the Gothic designs then
being promulgated by Chippendale. The top loop
forming a circle, the side loops forming similar
circles, the intersections of these and the lower
arcs forming an angle over the urn-ornamented
nozzle are little other than the loops and angles
forming the tracery of a Gothic design which
might with little addition be the leadwork of a
window. These same designs may, with an ob
servant eye, be traced in fanlights and doorways
in the suburbs of London where the middle
and late eighteenth century styles still linger in
the facades and in the railings.
Take another example still in date about 1790
(illustrated, p. 101) ; here the base is an urn and
the single-candle standard form nothing very
especially removed from a design very beloved
by the brass turners of a slightly later date.
But it is the branched form which commands
respect as a piece of decorative ornament. Its
C-shape spirals interlace at centre and form a
pleasing ornament. Its simplicity and grace are at
once apparent. It has the practicability that it
is not readily injured by ill-usage. Its wearing
parts are confined to a narrow space. Among
all the spiral forms there is nothing, however

106 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
elaborate, that excels this in grace. It is almost
honeysuckle like in conventional ornament. We
have seen the ironworker spin such reticent
spirals, but in the silversmiths' work it is rare to
find this form.
Another 1790 design (illustrated, p. 101) carries
the loops out in such a manner as to suggest
an elongated urn. The oviform intersection of
the loops, plain and formal though they appear
at first glance, do not come into such a severe
classic position by mere accident. The low drop
ping loops afford just that contrast and upward
spring which make the intersection, and give it
its maximum ornament as two bands enclosing a
space, which space is in itself a component part
of the ornament to the candelabrum.
Two fine examples illustrated (pp. 103, 107)
exhibit respectively the fine use of the twisted
form in the arms. They are both two-light
candelabra with central vase ornament. In the
former with single loops the vase is very properly
left nearly level with the apex of the arms. This
would have been a blemish in the other example
illustrated (p. 107), where the vase ornament
is larger and carries off the strong double twisted
design in the arms. This example is original in
its treatment of curves and carries the idea to
the utmost limit. Beyond this the ornament
became disastrous and added a note of eccentricity
to otherwise well-balanced designs.
When the loop went awry, as it did, it became

OLD SHEFFIELD CANDELABRUM.
Two lights : oval base, acanthus leaf decoration iu column. Double spiral branches.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq)

107

CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS 109
an excrescence. In two examples this is shown
in varying stages of decadence. It is obvious
that the designer had lost sight of the fact that
the curved loops could so be manipulated as to
become an integral part of the design and con
tribute to its harmony. The same thing happens
in regard to chair-backs. It was here that
Chippendale proved himself a prince of designers.
It was not so much what he put in as what he
left out. In other words, take a great design
of one of his superlative chair-backs and let the
eye trace the spaces, that is the space form, trying
if possible to eliminate the concrete solid design.
The silhouette of the outlines of the spaces are
really the key to the justness and beauty of the
design. If one could remove the mahogany
portions of an intricate carved back and placing
it against a black sheet retain the beautiful
outline of the spaces, the result, example
after example, would be a design book in
itself as fascinating as a book of Japanese stencil
plates. In the example 1795, with the three lights
(illustrated, p. 111) there is little to quarrel with
the design except that the long stem and wanton
simplicity and lack of grace suggest the cast iron
standard which effect is carried out by the common
place spiral leading to the central light, which,
by reason of its curves, attracts an attention to
itself which is unwarranted by any special
beauty it possesses. It is a blemish. It has no

110 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
meaning as a curve and it detracts from a sim
plicity which otherwise the candelabrum might
possess. The other example illustrated (p. in) has un
meaning spiral design utterly vitiating an other
wise harmless candelabrum. Its spirals run riot
and offer nothing pleasing. They stand as an
attempt undoubtedly original on the part of the
designer to produce something effective as a
novel design. The style otherwise of the candle
stick does not suggest that the craftsman had
a hold upon sound design, but we might pass
that. We are extremely thankful to know that
nobody seems to have continued this style. In
all possibility, by the laws of practical usage,
the housemaid placed her vengeance on the
offending spiral arms with no support and they
broke in halves. The same servitor teaches the
offending potter a lesson when, in vessels intended
for everyday use, he adds ornament that is
unduly projecting in handle or in spout. They
pass into the heap of shards because common
utility abhors useless ornament.
As a comparison with other forms of branched
candelabra and as exemplifying the completed
mastery the artist craftsman had over his design
and its execution, two examples of rare form
and character are illustrated (p. 113). The two-
light candelabrum is of unusual shape, the stan
dard being a full-bodied urn on which stands
another urn. Branches issue from the lower urn

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
With three lights : having central branch with corkscrew spiral.
Standard of unusual form. Date 1735.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
With two lights : having elongated spiral branches interlacing at
centre. Date 1790-1795.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDLESTICK.
On oval base, with standard in form of lyre. Threaded <
cups and nozzles Date 1795. Height 10 in.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
Willi two lights : having S-shaped branches, with standard in foim
of vase surmounted by another vase ornament.

In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq)
113

CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS 115
and in their intersections form beautiful curves
of pleasing form.
The single candlestick (illustrated, p. 113), has
another adaptation of curves in ornament. The
standard springs from a circular base and is in the
form of a lyre which supports an urn-shaped nozzle.
This form undoubtedly is derivative from French
sources. We find it in ornaments to metal clock
cases, and it bespeaks the Sheraton period in
possessing a grace and finesse associated with the
designs of Louis Seize that he acclimatized in this
country. The Tri-Form Candelabrum. — The candela
brum with three branches has been found capable
of much variation in character. These branches
have had the advantage of being able to conform
to conventional usages in regard to a triangular
conformation and a trifid ornament. It is a
favourite device in art from the lotus leaf of the
Buddhist emblems to the fleur-de-lys. The love
of a threefold ornament appealed to the wood-
carver, and it is found on sprigs decorating porce
lain. The use of three balancing adjuncts in
ornament is universal, apart from the deeper or
symbolical meaning of such forms.
In the example illustrated (p. 117), in date
1805, the three curved branches spring upwards
and the lights are all level. This form is typical
of some of the best three-branched candelabra
then made. It is solid and massive, and has no
false or overloaded ornament. It is dignified

116 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
and imposing. The other example, in date 1810,
illustrated on the same page, betrays at once
classic influence. The old models of Herculaneum
and Pompeii had been eagerly refashioned as
something new in the First French Empire. The
portrait of Madame Recamier by David shows
her sitting on an empire settee with a tall standing
candelabrum at its foot. The couch is a replica
of old Roman stone forms and the candelabrum
is a duplicate of a Pompeian style on tripod feet.
The candelabrum illustrated has a stand con
sisting of three tapering legs reeded, and ending
in claw feet. This supports an urn which in
its turn supports another, which latter can be
used as a light. From the lower urn proceed
three branches, spread out in triangular manner.
A later candelabrum with two arms and centre
light, illustrated (p. 121) betrays every sign of
bad design. The floral scroll work is hard and
offensive. The leaf and shell ornament at base
is equally unsatisfactory. It was this form that
survived as it came on the threshold of the era
of illumination by coal-gas. It was about this
date that Sir Walter Scott lit Abbotsford by gas.
" His application of gaslight to the interior of
a dwelling house was in fact attended by so many
inconveniences," says Lockhart his biographer,
" that ere long all his family heartily wished it had
never been thought of. The effect of the apparatus
was at first superb. In sitting down to table
in autumn no one observed that in each of three

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
With three lights : having spiral branches interlacing at centre.
Circular base terminating in vase ornament. Date 1805.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
With four lights : having spiral branches on tripod column with claw
feet, standing on hexagonal base. Date 1S10.

(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq.)

CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS 119
chandeliers there lurked a tiny bead of red light.
Dinner passed off, and the sun went down, and
suddenly at the turning of a screw, the room
was filled with a gush of splendour worthy of the
palace of Aladdin ; but as in the case of Aladdin,
the old lamp would have been better in the upshot.
Jewelry sparkled, but cheeks and lips looked
cold and wan in this fierce illumination ; and the
eye was wearied and the brow ached if the sitting
was at all protracted. I confess, however, that
my chief enmity to the whole affair," continues
Lockhart, arises from my conviction that Sir
Walter's own health was damaged in his latter
years in consequence of his habitually working
at night under the intense and burning glare of
a broad star of gas."
The Chamber Candlestick. — This form has
had a long survival and up to quite a recent date,
before the adoption of electricity, a row of earthen
ware candlesticks formed part of the appurten
ances of the hall or corridor of any provincial
hotel. The illustration (p. 123) entitled Serena,
from an engraving by J. R. Smith after Romney's
picture, shows a fair reader, entranced in some
old world romance, illuminated by the light of
a single candle, as injurious in its faint glimmer
as was the glare of the gas to Sir Walter Scott.
Romney painted Miss Sneyd as Serena at a date
between 1770 and 1790. The form of the candle
stick in the print, it will be seen, differs somewhat
from the Sheffield plate examples illustrated on
6

120 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
the same page. The example with the circular
nozzle and circular base is in date about 1810,
and the two others with square nozzles and
square bases are in date respectively 1815 and
1825. They are ornate in their ornament, and
have silver filled mounts and edges. The example
of the latest date is silver gilt.
The Evolution of the Table Candlestick. —
The table candlestick is of long lineage. The
Sheffield plated examples cover the last hundred
years of the existence of the candlestick as a
means of domestic lighting. During this period,
especially during that portion from 1765 to 1790
a brilliant procession of fine designs in silver,
made under the direction of highly inspired artist-
craftsmen, exhibits a flexibility of ornament
and a diversity of character rarely equalled in
English metal work covering so short a period
of time. It embraces the traditions of the Queen
Anne period still retained in the types carried
on in the reign of George II as robust as were
the designs in mahogany in Chippendale's early
manner following the broader splats and swelling
lines of the Hogarthian period. With the Adam
influence reticent decoration eminently fitted to
grace and embellish table ornament made its
permanent impression on the period, tinctured
with inclinations towards flowing lines — the ribbon
decorations of the carved wood chair-back, or later
the subtle graces of boudoir art reflected in the
designs of Thomas Sheraton. And with the steady

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDELABRUM.
With two arms and centre light. Arms curved and ornamented with floral scroll work.
Base plain, with circular band of silver leaf and shell ornament. Height 24 in.
Width 24 in. Date 1820.
(At the Sheffield Public Museum.)
(Reproduced by permission ofthe Corporation of Sheffield.)

121

"SERENA."
(From an old print.)
Engraved by J. R. Smith, after Romney.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CHAMBER CANDLESTICKS.

Gilt : silver-filled, gadroon
and shell edges. Date
1825.

Circular base, vase-shaped
nozzle, silver-filled mounts.
Da.e i8jo. 1£3

Square base, ornate silver-
filled mounts; single
plate. Date 1815.

CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS 125
flow of models of table candlesticks reflecting the
exuberance and native originality of a crowded
art-period the creations of the potters were running
concurrently in emulation of silver. Chelsea and
Bow produced candlesticks environed with peasant
maids and shepherdesses, in the technique apper
taining to the clay, rich in colours and pleasing
in effect. Wedgwood produced table candlesticks
in black and blue jasper ware with cameo decora
tions in white, or finely modelled classic figures
in basalt in which candelabra were embodied,
and running through the period are the compe
titive creations of table candlesticks as an echo
of silver forms by the glassworker.
The series of illustrations of the various types
of Sheffield plated table candlesticks do little
more than approximately indicate the rapidly
changing styles in a period so richly inventive
in decorative ornament. In the group illus
trated (p. 127) the example on the left, in date
1765, is on a square base with cluster columns
and leaf capitals. The example on the right is
in date 1770. The base is round. It is here
that the plater has exercised his ingenuity in fine
reticent die work, and the edging is delicately
beaded. The candlestick in the centre has a
square base, with fine batswing fluting, and square-
shaped columns ornamented with classic medal
lions. The nozzle has a character of its own in
having a rim which is pierced.
The illustrations (p. 129) show other forms

126 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
in process of evolution. The tall Corinthian
column made a handsome table ornament. The
example on left is one of a set of four, twelve
and a half inches high. The bases are square
and are decorated in clever die work with rosettes
and festoons carried around the pyramidal base.
This type has cluster columns terminating in
capitals decorated with formal leaf design. The
adjacent candlestick is a form found about 1790.
The base is square and fluted, and the column
is in classic style terminating in a capital in Ionic
style, with volutes springing out of twisted leaves
and husks. The third example in the upper
row is about 1795 in date. The base is square
and follows the same classic suggestions of previous
types. The capital is square and fluted, and is
decorated with conventional floral ornament. The
nozzle is urn shaped.
The three lower examples of the period from
1810 to 1830 show signs of debasement in form.
The bases have now become circular. Each
candlestick has certain beauties in it, little touches
which invite respect and regard, but each also
contains blemishes detracting from the exact
symmetry which was the character of the earlier
types. The floriate decoration as an ornament
to the lower half of the column in the first example
may be passed. In the second it has grown into
an unpleasing excrescence, and the base is decor
ated in a florid manner disturbing to the eye.
The last example has lost that fine feeling dependent

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDLESTICK.
With broken Muted column on square
base with ball ornament. Nozzle
richly decorated with acanthus leaf
design. Date 1765. Height 10 in.
{By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq.)

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDLESTICKS.

With square base, batswing fluting,
square-shaped column with medallion,
and having unusual nozzle with pierced
gallery. Date 1795. Height 12 in.

With circular base, column and nozzle
fluted, ornamented with bead
edging at base, column and nozzle,
Date 1770. Height 10 in.

(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.]

GROUP OF CANDLESTICKS, OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED.
Exhibiting types and variation in style for fifty years.

Upfer Row —
1780. Broken fluted
column. Acanthus leaf
decoration, square base,
medallion and ribbon
ornament. Lower Row—
1 81 0. Circular base, spiral
fluting, lobe decoration,
urn-shaped nozzle retained.

1790. Square base,
broken fluted column, ter
minating in Ionic capital,

1 820. Circular base, with
bulbous column heavily
decorated with floral
scrolls.

1795. Square base, taper
ing column fluted, sur
mounted by urn nozzle.

1830. Broken circular
base, onion-shaped column,
bulbous ornament.

129

CANDELABRA AND CANDLESTICKS 131
on the easy flow of simple line. It is composite
in character, it betrays a lack of inspiration.
It is a very poor relation to the fine table candle
sticks of the earlier period, where the beauty
wins and fascinates. There is no such grace
and distinction in these late examples, but they
doubtless reflected the silver fashions then preva
lent, which were in the main execrable in taste.

J

IV
SALT CELLARS AND MUSTARD POTS
THE SALT CELLARS
THE PATTERN BOOKS OF SHEFFIELD
THE NEW STYLE OF TABLE SALT CELLAR
THE MUSTARD POT
A BID FOR THE CONTINENTAL TRADE

CHAPTER IV
SALT CELLARS AND MUSTARD POTS
The salt cellars — The pattern books of Sheffield — The
new style of table salt cellar — The mustard pot—
A bid for the Continental trade.
There is nothing so ancient and so massive about
the salt cellars that Sheffield made as there is
in the old styles beloved by the collector of rare
silver plate. There are no standing salts in
Sheffield plate, such as those treasured at the
Universities, or brought out on state occasions
at the dinners of the great London Companies.
There is nothing in the eighteenth century in
silver approaching the grandeur affected by the
standing salt and its place of honour at the tables
when those who sat above the vessel and those
who sat below it were of different status. The
trencher salts of a later day were more democratic ;
they were smaller and they answered the practical
purpose of serving salt to the diners. But they
had nothing of the stateliness of the great stand
ing salt with its ritual as fixed as that of the loving
cup which circulated, although the salt was a per
manent fixture. Those who sat below the salt
135

136 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
were either the Greek chorus or they were " pre
posterous shadows lengthening in the noon-tide
of one's prosperity." They were poor relations,
" a blot on your scutcheon, a rent in your garment,
a death's head at your banquet." Charles Lamb
touches on the late eighteenth century phase of
the dependent below the salt. " He casually
looketh in about dinner-time — when the table is
full. He offereth to go away seeing you have
company — but is induced to stay. He filleth a
chair, and your visitor's two children are accom
modated at a side-table. ... He declarefh against
fish, the turbot being small — yet suffereth himself
to be importuned into a slice, against his first
resolution. . . . He is a puzzle to the servants,
who are fearful of being too obsequious, or not
civil enough to him. The guests think they have
seen him before. He calleth you by your Christian
name, to imply that your other is the same as
his own. He is too familiar by half, yet you
wish he had less diffidence. With half the famili
arity he might pass for a casual dependent ; with
more boldness he would be in no danger of being
taken for what he is. He is too humble for a
friend, yet taketh on him more state than befits
a client. He is a worse guest than a country
tenant, inasmuch as he bringeth up no rent.
When the company breaks up, he proffereth to
go for a coach — and lets the servant go. He
recollects your grandfather, and will thrust in
some mean and unimportant anecdote of the

Sloiiiiiiiii

DESIGNS OF SALT CELLARS.
From an old Pattern Book issued by eighteenth-century Sheffield platers lo Continental market. The v„i . „
plates m copper engraving, illustrating various Sheffield Tplated art™£ l! Date fabou° ™8<. "S '"Page
(At the Victoria and Albert Museum)
(Reproduced by permission of the Board of Education.)

SALT CELLARS AND MUSTARD POTS 139
family. He knew it when it was not quite so
flourishing as ' he is blest in seeing it now.' He
is of opinion that the urn is the more elegant
shape ; but after all, there was something more
comfortable about the old tea kettle — which you
must remember."
What a picture, graphic and piquant, of the
closing years of the eighteenth century. Had
the great standing salt survived how Elia would
have revelled in his sly whimsical manner in
portraying the exactitude with which it was
fixed as a thermometer to register the correctitude
of degrees of social affinity with the host. But
the scattered plebeian trencher salts, as was
the urn, which succeeded the copper kettle,
were of the days when Sheffield and the silver
smiths ran neck and neck.
The Pattern Books of Sheffield. — Advertise
ment is often considered to be of modern origin.
In the twentieth century it is true it has taken
to itself attributes which might very well have
been eliminated. The press is the fourth estate,
and its power for good or evil is illimitable. It
is obnoxious to find a page of advertisement
printed on the cheap edition of a novel. It is
a stab in the vitals to read an insidiously worded
article carefully printed in an evening paper
and find it only an advertisement. There is a
Plimsoll mark in advertising, and modernity has
not always agreed as to where this should be
placed.

140 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
There were advertisements in the journals of
the days of Charles II. In Anne's day in the
Spectator we find on June 2, 1712, advertisements
concerning a preparation for " polishing and
setting Razors, Penknives, and Lancets, not to
be paralleled, being much more durable and
smooth, never growing rough by using, but setting
Razors with greater Fineness and Exactitude
than any other sort possibly can. Price is. each.
Sold only by Mr. Allcrafts, a Toy Shop at the
Blue- Coat Boy against the Royal Exchange in
Cornhill and Mr. Paishon, a Stationer at the
Maypole in the Strand."
Sheffield goes back to 1624, when the Cutlers
Company was incorporated by Act of Parliament.
Cutlery and tools were the great features, but
later there grew up a special branch known as
" steel toys." Button-hooks, corkscrews, key rings,
nut-crackers, swivels and spring hooks, and many
other articles. Here then was the foundation of
trade long established and trade customs long in
operation. It is not therefore surprising to find
that when the great impulse came with factories
and mills arising on every hand for rolling plate
and manipulating it into shapes acceptable to
the world of fashion, that Sheffield rose to the
occasion. Her catalogues, beautifully engraved
and costly to produce, were embellished with
designs of examples she was prepared to export
to the Continent. From these Pattern Books we
get a very interesting sidelight into the intricacies

DESIGNS OF SALT CELLARS.
*rom an old Pattern Book issued by eighteenth cent,,™ <sh.ffi.ij , . L „
engraved plates, °&y*™^^JZ^ £^Jl^™g™^Ot the S6 copper
(Al the Victoria and Albert Museum)
(Reproduced by permission ofthe Board of Education.)

SALT CELLARS AND MUSTARD POTS 143
of the business side of the undertakings which
were evidently on colossal proportions.
In the examination of the designs each by
each it will be observed that as is usual in modern
trade publications every variation is given of
designs differing from each other although in
apparently unimportant details to the public.
But this peep behind the scenes shows how exact
were the traders in illustrating such differences
in design.
The point arises as to whether the Sheffield
platers themselves made these slight variations
in design, adding here a piece of chasing and
there a chain of festoons, each article having
this slight variation from its fellow, or whether
they were actually following the silversmiths'
designs in silver plate where similar variations
may have been made. We do not know. It is
a moot point. If we cannot find in silver, and
examples have not always been found to agree
exactly with Sheffield plate reproductions, all
that we know Sheffield produced we are on the
horns of a dilemma. First, some of the silver
designs required to indicate originals that
Sheffield must have copied are missing and must
have been destroyed, or, secondly, some of the
designs of Sheffield had no counterpart in silver ;
that is to say, they were original designs made
by the Sheffield silver platers as variations (as
the illustrations show) of silver models.
This is an interesting point, and it has never

144 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
been quite cleared up, as to whether all Sheffield
plated work can be matched by having examples
of solid silver plate produced as prototypes
from which such models were taken. Until this
is done systematically it is not quite certain
whether Sheffield did or did not invent certain
additions of her own in embellishing designs
which originally came from the silversmith. The
presumption is that she did ; broad general
designs as prototypes were used, but details in
ornament and decoration and a series of minor
differences were made to suit the technique or to
offer variety to clients.
An examination of the specimens from the old
copper-plate designs (illustrated, p. 137) shows
how slight some of the variations in chasing were.
No. 338 on the top row on left is similar to
No. 340 in same row which latter is minus the
festoons. No. 339 has an upright medallion
and a central band of chased lozenge ornament.
No. 337 has the same design in bands top and
bottom, the medallion is sideways and there are
added panels of ornament at side.
Another illustration (p. 141) shows similar
minute variations which were offered to the
trade. No. 486 on the left at the top row is
practically the same as No. 489, on the second
row beneath which has floral chasing added, and
the next example, No. 490, differs only inasmuch
as it has a broken curved top. The differences
therefore are only those found in trade catalogues.

DESIGNS OF MUSTARD POTS.
From an old Pattern Book issued by eighteenth-century Sheffield platers to Continental markets, by J. Parsons & Co., about 1784.
This series indicates the minute differences of detail in ornament of exceptional interest to collectors nowadays.
(At the Victoria and Albert Museum.)
(Reproduced bv permission or the Board of Education)

SALT CELLARS AND MUSTARD POTS 147
The New Style of the Table Salt Cellar. —
Apart from the days of the great standing salt
of the late seventeenth century, the potter fol
lowed on at Rouen and at Lambeth with simu
lations in white ware of these creations of the
silversmith. In the days of Queen Anne and
in the reign of George II the trencher salt was
of minor proportions and simple in design. It had
no feet and it did not attempt to be ornamental
in the same degree that is observable in later
salts where the decorative effect is beautiful and
symmetrical and where they followed in succession
all the phases of contemporary ornament. They
had hoof feet, claw and ball feet, were perforated
in their designs, were oval or hexagonal in
shape, adopting in turn the classic festoons of
the Adam period, and the godrooning of the
tureen of the late George III massive style. They
had three feet and then four feet, till they finally
dropped the foot altogether. When Empire forms
were in vogue they are found with sphinxes or
winged griffons and on tripod stands, and iii
the decadence they sunk to trivial designs as
inartistic as the crude earthenware butter pan
in the dairy.
It is interesting to the collector of old Sheffield
plate to trace his designs and compare them with
the silver hall-marked specimens throughout the
period from 1770 till 1820. He will find that
in the main the Sheffield plated examples of the
period about 1785 to 1795 offer examples in

148 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
decorative style not surpassed by any others,
and he will also find that the silver plate of that
particular period is not quite so replete with
similar designs as one would suppose, taking it
for granted that all the designs of the platers
were taken from the prototypes found in silver.
The Mustard Pot. — " What say you to a
piece of beef and mustard ? " says Shakespeare
in his Taming of the Shrew, which shows the use
of this condiment at the sixteenth century English
table, though there is no record of mustard pots
having formed part of the plate. Swift gave
certain satiric directions to a servant how to
snuff a candle, and he added further injunctions,
" Stick your candle in a bottle, a coffee-cup or
a mustard pot."
In collecting, the mustard pot bursts on the
horizon about the year 1760. Fitted with blue
glass liners, they ran in triumphant progress
with the sugar pails, and cream pails, through
a period of thirty to thirty-five years, offering
the choicest specimens of cut and pierced work,
with festoons and with medallions in classic style,
and decorated with exquisite chasing.
Their shapes varied with varying fashions.
The illustration (p. 145) taken from an old Design
Book by J. Parsons and Co. of Sheffield, about
1784, shows the type then fashionable. All these
are of oblong form. The lids spring up with fine
contour and are chased with various patterns,
all of them terminate in an urn pediment, fol-

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED MUSTARD POTS.

1775. With bar piercing: Medallions
and festoons. Circular base ; dome
lid. Handle of form usi.d on flagons.

1785. Oval shape. Handle with Prince
of Wales's feathers as thumb-piece,
Medai. ion star pierced. Threaded rim.

1785 Round in shape on collette 1790. Vase shaped on collette foot.
foot- scroll piercing. C rcular lid Bead edging and beaded handle.
surmounted by knob. Star piercing.
All these examplesihave blue glass liners.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.)
149

SALT CELLARS AND MUSTARD POTS 153
lowing the prevailing note in decoration. As
was shown with salt cellars in regard to these
old pattern books the designs are only slight
variations from each other, differentiated from
each other by numbers for trade reasons. But
the differences are trifling, as will be seen from
the illustration. The middle examples on the
two rows illustrate this. The same ostrich feathers,
a simulation of the fleur-de-lys, and later in
Hepplewhite manner to be affiliated with the
Prince of Wales's feathers as a permanent feature
in design. In both examples this is a feature
as a pierced medallion. The floral festoons are
the same in both cases, but the only variation
is the chasing in the upper and lower bands. The
other examples show similar relationship.
During the period of classic design there
was a drum-shaped upright form as is shown in
the illustration (p. 149) with handle and lid, by
the way, which go to an earlier period. The
adjacent example, 1785 in date, is oval, like the
copper-plate pattern book examples illustrated,
but its character is finer. The pierced designs as
in the 1775 example are of a fine quality. The
thumb piece at the handle, it may be noted, goes
back to seventeenth century days and is found
in flagons.
Other drum forms are shown in the illustration
(p. 151) and the same slight variations appear
in trade differentiations in this copper-plate
catalogue of examples ready for export. Some
7

i54 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
of these, it will be noticed, have flat lids and one
example has the dome-shaped lid of the flagon
of earlier days. The tall urn-form offers another
variety of shape. It is here shown in the engraved
examples and it is further exemplified in two
fine examples in date 1785 and 1790, illustrated
(p. 149). In the left hand specimen the pierced
work exhibits an originality and beauty in its
curved perforations. The other mustard pot has
pierced star ornament and delicate beaded
decoration, on body and handle. In regard to
the handles of these urn mustard pots there is
a departure from exact classic countour. The
illustration (p. 151) shows the handles in fine
curve, but severely classic. The practical examples
have lost this severity, the handles are more
the handles of the working silversmith than the
designs of the drawing master. In regard to
Sheraton's design books there are similar differ
ences. The practical craftsman did not always
live up to the ideal of the designer.
A page of mustard pots illustrated (p. 155)
shows the diversity of the styles, and collectors
can compare their Sheffield plate not only with
marked examples of silver but with designs that
were issued from Sheffield in the series of Pattern
Books which happily have not been destroyed.
A page of pepper castors illustrated (p. 155)
shows similar inventiveness in design and orna
ment. A Bid for Continental Trade. — The series

GROUP OF OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED PEPPER CASTORS.

GROUP OF OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED MUSTARD POTS.

(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.)
155

SALT CELLARS AND MUSTARD POTS 157
of illustrations reproduced throughout the
volume show that Sheffield was organized and
fully equipped as an art industry, ready and
competent to seize foreign markets. To those
who imagine that the Sheffield silver plating
process was something comparatively trivial, wholly
imitative, and more or less of little moment in
reckoning the eighteenth century art industries
in England, this should come as a shock. We do
not remember that Worcester or Derby, Chelsea
or Bow, our much vaunted porcelain factories,
ever had much relationship with the Continent in
the way of trade. Wedgwood did, and the other
Staffordshire potters did, because they were more
organized than the porcelain factories. It is inter
esting, therefore, to find that on the Continent
a demand had arisen for English metal work.
The metalsmiths on the Continent were by no
means deficient in originality. For centuries in
Italy and in Holland, in Germany and in France,
some of the finest workers in gold and silver, in
brass and iron, artists in jewels and in enamel,
had won a great renown. It is somewhat flatter
ing to find that the foreigner saw, what perhaps
was less recognized in the country of its origin,
that the work of the Sheffield silver platers stood
on a plane apart. And their flattering attentions
were not only confined to purchasing replicas of
fine English silver. Whether they bought it as
being useful from a trade point of view to copy
English silver designs, as a short cut to getting

158 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
fine models, or whether they loved it for its own
sake as a cheap and as a beautiful reproduction
of fine designs, we cannot determine, but they
did the Sheffield platers the honour of copying
their technique and there are some fine examples
of their work. In France, plated ware in the
Sheffield manner was manufactured. We illus
trate a coffee pot of no mean design (p. 211)
of French workmanship, and it is stated that in
Holland and in Russia similar imitations of the
Sheffield technique were made. Special marks
were compulsory for this plated ware in the
country of its origin in order to prevent its
sale as solid silver plate. Two French marks
illustrated (p. 291) show the words Double (copied)
or Plaque (plated) together with figures denoting
the quantity of the silver.

CAKE BASKETS
DECANTER STANDS OR
COASTERS DISH RINGS
INKSTANDS AND
TAPER HOLDERS

CHAPTER V
Cake baskets — Decanter stands or Coasters — Dish
rings — Inkstands and taper holders.
As the days wore on at Sheffield the technique,
as collectors know, became amazingly perfect.
The silver wire following the intricate outlines of
a vessel disguising the raw edges of the copper,
was used in a manner unequalled by the crafts
man in silver plate because he had no need of
such artifices to conceal in his technique the
poverty of the base. He was working in a solid
metal where no base metal at every conceivable
point thrust itself into prominence. He could
engrave deeply with no possibility of going too
deep and betraying the shining copper. His
applied ornament was solid silver, and here the
Sheffield plater runs parallel in regard to die
work and soldering parts together. But, in all,
the Sheffield plater was more skilled, his die work
is delicate and exhibits no noticeable trace as to
its extraneousness. He may be compared with
the artist in veneer of the same or an earlier period.
The4perfection of applied veneer and the exquisite
skill employed by the cabinet-maker in covering
oak with fine figured mahogany is unsurpassed.
161

162 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
Veneers have in modern days been so skilfully
made until they are no thicker than a cigarette
paper, the modern glue and the modern processes
have worked on scientific lines, although in many
respects they have not outrivalled the old worker
in veneers. Similarly, in Sheffield plate, the great
note of exclamation, surprising and wonderful,
is at the wire edged work, the handling of dies
in a subtle and delicate manner, and the great
result produced by a difficult technique. Stage
by stage the Sheffield platers increased their
facility for cunning handicraft. Machinery they
had, and clean-cut differentiation of task. In
fact the various branches soon became specialized
in such a great industry. There were the die
sinkers, and the workmen who fashioned dies
and the workmen who fitted them ingeniously
in position were others than those who soldered
candlesticks together. The candlestick makers
became a separate industry. Piercing and cutting,
and the designs for this craft, soon became separate
and were carried to a great point of perfection.
Chasing as a craft and the designs for chasing
as an art it may readily be believed formed another
separate branch. From the preparation and fusing
of the copper and silver, the rolling of the ingot,
to the later stages of artistic technique, so great
and extensive an art industry systematized itself
into component working parts. But through it
all runs like a silver thread the intensity of the
magical working of wire. Wire, unheeded by

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CAKE BASKET.
Woven wirework with gadroon border, wilh handle in plain double bands and hinged
Date 1P00.
(At the Sheffield Public Museum)

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CAKE BASKET.
With circular base : having wire body surmounted by a broad lip heavily decorated
with floral ornament : massive handle with hinges. Date 1810. Diameter 9A in.
Base 4 in. (At the Sheffield Public Museum.')
(Reproduced by permission of the Corporation of Sheffield.)
163

CAKE BASKETS 165
the tyro but beloved by the connoisseur, converted
copper and silver, with its too obvious copper
edge into solid plate to all appearance. It dupli
cated all with which the silversmith could endow
his plate and it represented toil and infinite pains,
the genius of Sheffield, in producing results which
are unequalled as tours de force in metal technique.
Cake Baskets. — The cake or bread basket
offered a fine field for free manipulation of the
sheet silver, for fine pierced-work, or designs
classic and severe, or urn-shaped and massive,
All these are found, and Sheffield plate cake
baskets are always sought after by collectors as
offering something delectable in design and ex
quisite in detail.
The example illustrated (p. 163) is composite
in its technique. The broad solid band as a rim
has pierced ornament, as has also the foot. The
body of the basket is wire work. The hinged
handle is a solid band. A fine woven wire example,
in date 1800, has a gadroon border, with handle
with double bands and hinged. This is in simple
basket form. The woven wire follows the tech
nique or simulates the character of a plaited
straw basket, just as Wedgwood ware baskets
and dishes simulated the plaited and interlaced
rush baskets. One must compare Sheffield plate
with the silver examples by Edward Romer and
William Plummer about 1760. A later example,
in date 1810, illustrated (p. 163) has a circular
base from which springs a wire body surmounted

166 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
by a broad lip or rim heavily decorated with
floral ornament, and having massive handle with
hinges. The touches of extraneous ornament
indicate the departure from the wire worker's
reticence and simplicity. The design is debased
from such simplicity as is found in pure wire
work by these added floral ornaments. Light
ness and grace are the keynotes in wire work
and here they are destroyed by the unwanted
additions. Decanter Stands or Coasters. — This is a great
family. At first glance it would not seem that
there was much room for variation in articles
designed for so simple an object as holding a
bottle or a decanter and preventing it staining
the polished mahogany table. But an examination
of various types shows how inventive was the
Sheffield designer in producing original shapes of
great diversity of character.
In regard to ornament they received the
elaborate attention of the piercer who allowed his
designs to attain a rich quality only excelled by
the dish rings to which reference is made later.
They were circular, they had broken tops with
flowing curves, or they were octagonal. They
had richly gadrooned edges or fine beadwork, or
in some examples they had four handles reminis
cent of decorative ornament of an earlier period.
The four examples illustrated (p. 167) illustrate
types which were being made from 1785 to 1790.
They are all from pairs, and each exhibits repre-

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED COASTERS.

Finely chased and pierced. Threaded and plain -edges.
Date about 1790.
Pierced and chased with bead edges and shaped top.
Date about 1785.

Finely pierced in classic style with bead edges. _ Date
about 1785.
Octagonal in shape ; pierced design with straight thread
edges. Date about 1790.

(In the collectio7i of B. B. Harrhon, Esq)

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED COASTERS.
With broad beaded pattern : having Vertically fluted : with moulded border of
turned wooden botlo n with silver boss scrolldesign. Turned wooden bottom
in centre. Date 1810. Diameter $% in. with plated boss in centre. Date 1815.
Diameter 6| in.
(Al the Sheffield Public Museum.)
(By permission ofthe Corporation of Sheffield.)

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED COASTERS.
Circular bases with turned wooden bottoms. Rims « ith gadrooned edges terminating in
four raised scroll ornaments. Date 1805.
(In the collection of G. H. Wallis, Esq., F.S.A)
109

DECANTER STANDS OR COASTERS 171
sentative features. The earlier form was not
quite so deep as is found in later coasters. In
later examples the height is twice that of the
earliest type. Perhaps it was found that bottles
or decanters were apt to fall over as the evening
wore on, but it is certain that the protective
guard became higher, and some of the tallest
can be used quite comfortably nowadays to hold
a syphon of soda. The elaborate pierced floriate
work in the 1785 Coaster (p. 167) is classical in
character, and it has bead edges and stands as
an excellent piece of workmanship. The adjacent
example, 1790, is seen to be taller though still
not so tall as were made at a later date, in the
decadence. The pierced work is less effective
and may be compared with some of the designs
on what are known as Irish dish rings or potato
rings. It has threaded and plain edges.
A departure from the circular top is shown in
the lower example, of 1785 in date, with pierced
and chased work of rosettes and festoons. Its
broken curved top rim is decorated with bead
edges. The other octagonal shaped specimen, in
date 1790, is pierced in reticent manner corres
ponding with its geometric form, and has straight
thread edges.
At the opening of the nineteenth century new
forms came into vogue, the pair of Coasters illus
trated (p. 169) are of an unusual design where
four scrolls ornament the rims. These scrolls
have the suggestion of French First Empire

172 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
decorative work found in domestic ornament and
embodying bronze work sphinxes, griffons and
other bold designs adapted reminiscent of Her-
culaneum. These coasters have turned wooden
bottoms. Another Coaster (p. 169), in date 1810, has a
broad beaded pattern at edge and a turned wooden
bottom with a silver boss in the centre. This
particular style has become a favourite and has
been duplicated indefinitely and is known as
familiarly the world over. In this it resembles
the success of the willow pattern plate which,
as a piece of pseudo-Chinese design, won the
admiration of the public in the eighteenth century,
and has been made by all the Staffordshire potters
almost as a stock pattern.
On the same page is a later Decanter Stand,
about 1815 in date, having a turned wooden
bottom with silver boss in centre. It is verti
cally fluted, and has a heavy moulded border of
scroll design. It will be seen how far this example
has departed from the fine character of the types
which were being made in the great period prior
to 1790. The love for ornament ran riot. It was
misplaced and heavy mouldings and solid orna
ments were added to articles that could not stand
such meaningless exuberances and carefully exe
cuted details which choked all natural simplicity
of line.
Restlessness of invention seized the Sheffield
and other platers. Old forms were discarded, not

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED COASTERS.

Lip decorated with scalloped floral design.
Turned wooden bottom with plated boss.
Date 1820.

With moulded edge and broadly fluted.
Turned wooden bottom with plated boss.
Date 1805.

Interior of above.
Diameter 6£ in.

Interior of above.
Diameter 6£ in.

(At the Sheffield Public Museum.)
(Reproduced by permission of the Corporation of Sheffield)

173

,:.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED BUTTER DISH.

Oval, finely pierced, having chased lid surmounted by pineapple. Twisted wire handles ;
on four claw and ball feet. Blue glass liner. Date about 1785.

OLD SILVER PLATED DISH RING.
Pierced ornament of floral design and scrolls. Date 1775- Made in imitation of Irish
silver Dish or Potato Rings.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.)
175

DISH OR POTATO RINGS 177
because they had outlived their usefulness, but
because fashion demanded or appeared to demand
something new. The decanter stand began to
have its lip spread out more like a dish than like
the early form of coaster. Some were decorated
lavishly with scalloped floral design as in the
example illustrated (p. 173), in date 1820. An
illustration of the vessel upturned shows the
crowded character of the design. The wooden
turned base has the usual silver stud or boss in
centre. The adjacent example, fifteen years earlier,
shows a finely moulded edge broadly fluted. The
character of this example is not open to any
criticism as to over lavishness of ornament. It
is true it exhibits a newer style, but it holds its
own as a fine and comparatively reticent piece
of design.
The Dish or Potato Ring. — The Irish silver
smiths were particularly ingenious in their pierced
work. Will Hughes at Dublin about 1770 made
some interesting pieces reflecting the sanest art.
There was always a dignity and grace in the
decoration which was strongly classical in its
lines, embodying medallions and rosettes and
festoons of drapery. The Dish Ring or Potato
Ring is a form peculiar to Ireland. It was only
made for a comparatively short period, and has been
revived again as a modern memory of old fashions,
though its use is not quite understood nowadays.
These rings are stands upon which bowls were
placed to prevent the hot vessel from injuring the

178 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
surface of the mahogany table. They are also
believed to have supported wooden bowls contain
ing potatoes. Genuine Irish examples are always
circular. Bowl and dish were synonymous terms in
the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
hence probably the term " Dish Ring." They
were made as early as 1760. There is a marked
example with the Dublin hall mark for that year,
together with the maker's mark, Robert Calder-
wood. Large prices have been paid for examples
of old Irish silver dish rings. £129 was given
for an example hall-marked 1757, and other prices
range from £50 to as high as £250 ; in view of
their slight weight this works out in some instances
at two hundred and thirty shillings per oz.
Examples of Irish work are sometimes apparently
simple, but having such careful technique and
skilful manipulation of the design as to give the
greatest opportunity for the effective play of
light and shade and silhouette. Another form
more intricate embraced the use of birds and
flowers and miniature pastoral scenes embossed,
while a more simple form yet capable of fine
character was that which confined itself to basket
work with round or flat wire interlaced.
It is natural therefore that the Sheffield silver
workers saw in the Irish dish ring a design worthy
of imitation ; and imitate it they did. In conse
quence a great number of plated replicas were
exported to Ireland. They have an interest,
and the example illustrated (p. 175) shows the

-3/S j//aU

&2<y jf^.^l

DESIGNS OF INKSTANDS.
From Pattern Book of eighteenlh-century Sheffield platers' work ; issued by
[ Parsons & Co. about 1702. The left-hand examples with perforated
lid are pounce boxes. The lower stand is priced at 30s., the others at
21s. each cash, and the book is signed '-Jno. Green, escompte 30 %."
(A I the Victoria and Albert Museum)
(Reproduced by permission of the Board of Education.)
179

INKSTANDS AND TAPER HOLDERS 131
class of work the Sheffield craftsmen turned out
in emulation of their Irish silver prototypes.
It is an ordinary pierced design embellished with
festoons. Some of the Sheffield examples were
finely pierced and chased in a manner no less
perfect than the same class of work one finds on
the sugar pails, the mustard pots, and the salt
cellars of the best period. The Butter Dish
illustrated (p. 175) fully exemplifies this type of
work at its best. It is oval and finely pierced
with an unusual design giving in silhouette the
effect of diaper ornament. It is on four ball
and claw feet, and the lid is chased and is sur
mounted by a pineapple. The handles are twisted.
These vessels, like the others enumerated above
with pierced work, are furnished with blue glass
liners, and these collectors are fortunate who
find bargains with the original glass liners.
Inkstands and Taper Holders. — The old
Sheffield plated inkstand is beloved by collectors.
The oval tray was always an elegant piece of
work, either pierced with fine running design
over an extended surface as border top and bottom
and often chased with medallions. The three
examples illustrated (p. 179) are from an eight
eenth century Pattern Book issued in 1792 by
Messrs. J. Parsons & Co. of Sheffield. Written
in ink on the first page for information of
continental buyers is " Jn. Green escompte 30%."
Green was one of the partners of the firm.
This little book in paper covers has no less

182 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
than eighty-four copper plate engravings, and
for the delectation of the later collector the
prices are written in ink throughout. The
prices of the examples illustrated are " 21s.
Each " the two top ones, and " 30s. Each "
the lower example.
It will be seen that the latter has three pots.
The pounce pot was always a necessary portion
to the old inkstand, being used as a sifter in the
days before blotting paper was invented. Fine
sand was dusted over the writing. It would
appear that the pounce pot with its perforated
lid is on the left in all the three examples. The
centre pot in the lowest inkstand was additional,
though not as one might at first assume for a
different coloured ink as the lid has not the same
cover as those for ink with a tiny hole in centre.
It was apparently a receptacle for some of the
appurtenances of the writing table, certainly not
pens, for steel nibs were not then invented, and
every one wrote with a quill pen which he could
sharpen with a penknife. Nowadays the art of
cutting a quill by hand is one of the lost arts.
An illustration from a Design Book issued by
Robert Cadman and Co. of Sheffield about 1797
gives three examples of Taper Holders (p. 183).
The nozzle at the top shows the tiny light from
the coiled wax taper. The apex of the stand
really consists of a miniature candlestick. Two
of the stands, as will be seen, have the handles
and thumb pieces at the bottom. They are all

DESIGNS OF OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED TAPER HOLDERS.
Fr0m,hP,alt"S B°°k iSSU,d. b?„R\CV& Co- (Robert Cad<™ & Co.) about 1797 to Continental markets. The book contains 70
HmlTirl^^t.H^TT,,^ S°me °f "" «"*'» French as we,, as English, ^ht'abovl
(At the Victoria and Albert Museum. )
(Reproduced by permission of the Board of Education.)

INKSTANDS AND TAPER HOLDERS 185
of varying form ; that on the left has a canopy
covering the coiled taper, that in the centre en
closes the taper in a wire cage, while the example
on the left is the simplest in construction and
enables us to see how the taper as it burned was
thrust upwards to the aperture at the top. All
three have extinguishers attached by a chain.
Some of the descriptions in the book from which
these designs are reproduced are in French as
well as English, as it was intended for use in the
Continental markets.

VI
TEAPOTS TEA AND
COFFEE SETS
TEA KETTLES
COFFEE POTS
SUGAR BASINS

CHAPTER VI
Teapots — Tea and coffee sets — Tea kettles — Coffee
pots — Sugar basins.
The eighteenth century of the days of Hogarth,
with his Gin Lane and Beer Street and with his
satiric pencil reflecting the follies of his day is
filled to repletion with eating and drinking, especi
ally the latter. During the later years of George II
there had been going on a vigorous protest between
two parties as to the relative effects of beer drink
ing and gin drinking. In 1752 appeared a print
of the " Funeral Procession of Madame Geneva."
A song was very popular in 1757 under the title
of the " Beer-Drinking Briton." One couplet
will suffice to indicate its character :
For your beef eating, beer-drinking Britons are souls
Who will shed their last blood for their country and king.
In 1758, owing to the scarcity of corn, a bill
was passed for the prohibition of the distillation
of spirits. Porson wrote a series of epigrams in
the Morning Chronicle about Pitt and Dundas
going drunk to the House of Commons on the
evening when a message was to be delivered
from his Majesty relative to war with France.
189

190 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
Pitt, who tried to speak, found himself unable
to do so, and was kindly pulled down to his seat
by his friends.
" Who's up ? " enquired Burke of a freind at the door.
" Oh ! no one," says Sherry, " though Pitt's on the floor."
Sheridan, the maker of the quip, and Porson,
the Greek scholar, together make up a fine quartet
as exemplifying the Bacchanafian habits of their
day. As to the vessels used in spirit drinking and
in wine drinking Sheffield contributed her
share. The punch bowl more often than not
was of oriental porcelain, but the finely shaped
monteiths, where the scalloped rim allowed of a
row of glasses being hung around were made
as early as 1700 by Anthony Nelme, by Fogelberg
in 1701, and many another great silversmith.
They continued to the middle and latter years
of the century, and in Sheffield plate there are
some very excellent examples, and there are
punch bowls with designs simulating those in the
Flaxman manner executed by the silversmith.
Ice pails with lion mask handles, and a glorious
array of wine coolers, urns in the classic style
simple and reticent, or vases with richly god-
rooned rims and massive handles, such as Roberts
and Cadman made in 18 15 ; all these were found
on the sideboard receiving the attention of the
butler. But the teapot and the coffee pot did not go

<g~6

'I

DESIGN OF TEAPOT.
From Pattern Book issued by eighteenth-century Sheffield platers to Continental markets. The signature " Jno. Green, 1792," a partner
of J. Parsons & Co., indicates its origin. Teapots holding ij pints were priced at 40s. each, and quarts 46s. each. The
medallion enclosed by wreath and ribbon applied ornament, was probably silver, to enable a crest or monogram to be cut without
exposing copper. (At the Victoria and Albert Museum.)
(Reproduced by permission of the Board of Education)

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED TEAPOT AND TEA CADDIES.
Teapot, willi silver medallion and engraved initials. Date 1795.
Caddies rint.ly chased and having locks.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CAKE BASKET.
Plain band-hinged handle. Pierced work at foot and shoulder.
Shaped and fluted body.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.)
193

TEAPOTS 195
unrecognized by the Sheffield artisans. What
the silversmith did the platers did, and followed
the fashions in rapid simulation of styles just
catching the public taste. In determining date
this must be borne in mind. At most the silver
plate was only a year ahead of the replica.
Sheffield was too alert to lag behind in fashion,
especially in fashions which might readily change.
In eighteenth century polemics we find opponents
to tea and to coffee. Jonas Hanway, the eastern
traveller, who popularized the use of the umbrella
in England, was antagonistic to the use of tea
as a national beverage. And epigram writers
were busy, as for instance :
If wine be a poison, so is tea — but in another shape, —
What matter whether we are kill'd by canister or grape.
The illustration (p. 191) shows the class of
teapot made about 1790. The price, which is
written in ink, is " x\ Pints 40s. " and " Quart,
46s. Each." These prices must seem delightful
to the lover and collector of old Sheffield plate
nowadays who has to pay swinging prices, especi
ally when we read that the old trade prices were
subject to thirty per cent, discount. But it is
the same with old Worcester china, where the
original prices were a tenth of what is paid now.
An interesting feature about this teapot illus
trated is that it shows the fusion of the classic
design in the wreath and the Chippendale manner
in the ribbon ornament, which latter style finds

196 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
its way into bookplates of the period. The French
school of engravers of the Louis Seize period
embellished their oval portraits with ribbon orna
ment in this character.
These medallions intended to receive the crest
of the owner were of silver. The Sheffield plater
affixed them in position in a cunning manner
with no unskilful touch. They were capable of
receiving deeply cut engraving without exhibiting
the copper underneath. They are a feature
present in many examples not only of teapots
but many other articles made in plated ware.
A similar teapot to the design in the Pattern
Book is illustrated (p. 193). The Pattern Book
bears the name Jn. Green 1792, and as he was
a partner in J. Parsons & Co. there is some
likelihood that this is one of their produc
tions. On the same page are two Tea Caddies,
oval in shape, with broken outline, in the same
fashion as silver tea caddies made about 1785,
and having the characteristics of the Sheraton
delicacies in cabinet work. The lid of one is
surmounted by a round knob and the other by
a hinged handle. They both have locks. The
chasing is in classical manner, not so severe as
that of the Adam period, but still retaining much
of the formal grace of the festoons. The cake
basket shown on the same page is contemporary,
though it indicates a departure from classic
feeling. The earliest tea caddies came from China and

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED TEAPOT, SUGAR BASIN, AND CREAM JUG.
Date 1810.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED COFFEE POT, TEAPOT, SUGAR BASIN, AND
CKEAM JUG ON TRAY.
Date 1820.
Four-piece sets were made after this.
197

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED SET.
Date 1825.

OLD SHEFFIELD TLATED SET WITH TRAY.
Date 1830.
(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq.)
199

TEA AND COFFEE SETS 201
were decorated in blue and white. Worcester
produced fine examples, some in powder blue.
Whieldon made and dated others " Green Tea,
I765-" Wedgwood had his square canisters in
black basalt ware. Liverpool printed dainty trans
fer pictures on these dainty caskets. They are
found enamelled by Battersea in rich colours.
They are found in pewter and they are found in
glass. Bristol produced white opaque bottles
inscribed " Hyson " and " Bohea," and there are
square cut-glass caddies with silver mounts and
handles, and in Holland the old Delft examples
came with the early days of tea drinking. The
cabinet-makers, Chippendale and Hepplewhite
and Sheraton, show tea caddies in their Design
Books and they were splendid pieces of work in
mahogany and satinwood with ivory and coloured
marquetry. Many of the little caddy spoons of
such pleasing variety of shape were made to go
with these tea caddies, and were produced at
Sheffield as well as in solid silver.
Tea and Coffee Sets. — It was not until about
1820 to 1825 that tea sets were produced with
teapot, cream jug, and sugar basin as well as
the coffee pot. The set illustrated (p. 197), about
1810 in date, shows this omission. Later in 1820,
as shown in the illustration below, the coffee pot
became part of the set ; and in the illustration
of the sets it is clearly seen that the styles of
the coffee pots are in keeping with the rest of
the set and nave not been matched or added later.

202 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
The four-piece sets became a common feature
after the first quarter of the nineteenth century,
and some of these are of pleasing character. Two
sets, 1825 and 1830 in date, are illustrated (p. 199).
With these were accompanying trays of solid
manufacture and about this date they were very
heavy and richly ornamented by die work with
applique shell patterns and foliage at the rims.
They only emulated the very solid silver of the
late Georgian era when silver was sold by weight
by the dealers and so much added for " fashion,"
that is, fashioning it. This latter item in massive
pieces was a comparatively insignificant sum
compared with the total cost, which provoked
the eighteenth century epigram :
When Loveless married Lady Jenny,
Whose beauty was the ready penny ;
" I chose her," said he, " like old plate.
Not for the fashion but the weight."
The tea urn offered fine opportunities for rich
design and splendour of ornament. It was in
vogue in the opening years of the nineteenth
century and had a fairly long life. Nowadays it
is relegated to the lumber-room, or, if the hostess
be a collector, it is dragged forth from its obscurity
to grace the display of family plate. The example
illustrated (p. 203) is on an octagonal stand with
claw feet. It belongs to the same period and
has the same ornament at the base as the candela
brum illustrated (p. 93) showing First Empire

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED TEA URN WITH COVER.
r;rr„t-,r base to which is attached an octagonal stand on claw feet. Richly decorated
circular case, iu v» ^.^ _n floriate style Date l8l0
(At the Sheffield Public Museum)
(Reproduced by permission ofthe Corporation of Sheffield)
203

TEA KETTLES 205
influence derivative from Pompeii. The whole
piece is richly decorated in floriate style. Patrick
.Robertson of Edinburgh produced tea urns in
silver under the same influence.
Tea Kettles. — There is something especially
fascinating about these old vessels. As early as
Queen Anne, tea kettles with a little spirit lamp
beneath were in use. One hall-marked for the
year 1709 made by N. Locke sold in 1909 for
£243, being two hundred shillings per oz. Paul
Lamerie made some fine examples just when
Thomas Boulsover was launching his invention
at Sheffield. It is not surprising to find the
Sheffield kettles appealing to connoisseurs because
many of them are possessed of beautiful ornament,
and the die work is exceptionally perfect. Even
in late examples the artistic possibilities of so
graceful a vessel have not been missed. They are
usually termed tea kettles, and there is no doubt
that since the days when Queen Anne drank tea
in the Orangery at Kensington Palace and Dr.
Johnson graced the tea table of Mrs. Thrale, these
vessels were part of the tea table equipment.
But there is reason to suppose that they also
bore a brave part in preparing the hot water
for toddy and for punch. But in any case they
hold a firm hold on the collector's esteem and
regard, whether he be as austere as Father Mathew,
who tilted a lance at spirituous cordials, spiced
and unctuous, which, like ginger, were " hot in
the mouth," or whether he be as convivial as

206 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
Father Prout, whose Bacchanalian songs belong
to the days of Beranger.
The examples illustrated (p. 207) each have
pleasing qualities to attract attention. The upper
one, in date about 1805, has a fine body. Its
cover is surmounted with a twisted flame orna
ment such as is found in candelabra. The orna
mental stand is rococo, almost reminiscent of the
period of Louis Quinze. But the whole effect,
though ornate, is very pleasing.
The lower example, in date 1820, the last year
of the reign of George III, has a melon-shaped
body, and the handle is hinged. The base exhibits
rococo ornament in Chippendale manner, sug
gesting certain designs in his Director which were
too ornate to be carried out. They were only
designs as suggestions rather than working draw
ings. But it suggests, too, curiously enough,
certain forms of the watch-stand then fashion
able. In fact, taken away from its present en
vironment, it might with a very little brazing
be used as a support for a watch, that is, if the
lower superstructure be taken away.
Coffee Pots. — With so many varieties of coffee
pot made by the leading silversmiths Sheffield
had no reason to be short of examples. The
coffee pot was always taller than the teapot, and
it has retained its form to this day, though the
earliest teapot known in this country was tall
and might well be mistaken for a coffee pot ;
it is in date 1670 and was presented by George,

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED TEA KETTLES.

With spirit lamp on stand, with floral scroll ornament. Oval body ;
curved and looped handle ; lid surmounted by conventional
tongue of flame. Date 1805,
[By courtesy of Walter II. Willson , Esq.)

With spirit lamp on stand, with rococo ornament. Melon-shaped
body ; hinged handle ; dome-shaped lid, surmounted by bell
flower. Date 1820.
\[In the collection of B. B> Harrison, Esq.)

COFFEE POTS 209
Lord Berkeley, to the Honourable East India
Company. They were made in various parts of
the country, in London, at Chester, and the marks
shown on a coffee pot made at Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, in date 1737, of quite the ordinary form
in use to-day, are given in the Appendix (p. 279).
The illustration (p. 211) shows an example of
silver plated ware made in the Sheffield manner
by fusion and rolling which was made in France.
Its body is oviform. It has three legs, which
terminate in claw feet. At their juncture with
the body there is an ornament of conventional
honeysuckle pattern produced by die work. The
shoulder is decorated by a band of classic orna
ment. The cover is surmounted by an acorn.
The spout is moulded in the form of a dragon's
head, a form found in a coffee pot made by Patrick
Robertson of Edinburgh in 1769, and in the Royal
Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. The handle is wood.
There is no doubt about the character of this
piece. It is un-English in its design, though it
undoubtedly duplicates the technique of Sheffield.
It bears the French mark of " 10. M," illustrated
in Appendix (p. 291), the highest quality of plated
ware, and has the additional stamp Plaque (plated)
without which no plated articles could be sold
in France. The French law in regard to plated
goods is severe. " The punch of each maker de
double or de plaque has a particular form deter
mined by the Administrator of the Mint. The
maker also indicates on his works the numerals

210 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
denoting the quantity of silver which they
contain." In regard to plating on copper or any other
baser metal the worker can employ silver in any
proportion he may desire. But he is required by
law " to place upon each of his works his own
punch determined by the Mint (as stated in article
above quoted). He shall also add to the stamp
numerals indicating the quantity of silver con
tained in his work, on which also shall be impressed
in full the word double." And this is exactly
what the French craftsmen have done as shown
by the illustrated marks given in Appendix (p. 291) .
The Sugar Basin. — The earliest form of the
sugar basin was that with a glass liner and capable
of receiving highly ornamental pierced work.
They were not always of the same height as is
shown by the two examples illustrated (p. 211).
The oviform surface of the vessel lent itself to
broad bands of decoration and lozenge work in
combination with the pierced design. The handles
were hinged. These sugar pails as they are often
called, although there is the cream pail with
liner to which it is more suitable to apply the
term " pail," offer delightful variety in treatment,
and the number turned out by Sheffield indicate
that they were exceptionally popular at the date
of their manufacture. We find them about 1770
to about 1795. In their early form they were
classic basins decorated with medallions and
festoons and having elongated handles. S. and J.

OLD FRENCH SILVER-PLATED COFFEE POT.
Made in the Sheffield manner. Ovoid body ; wooden handle ;
dragon spout. Applied classic ornament, terminating in three
legs on claw and ball feet. For marks see p. 291. Date 1815-1820.

OLD SHEFFIELD SUGAR BASKETS.
Circular on collette foot, with fine pierced work. Blue glass liners.
Threaded handle, date 1790. Beaded handle, date 1775.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq)
211

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED SUGAR BASIN.
Circular form with two handles. The body divided into fourteen globular sections by repousse work. Marked D ^ S (Dixon & Sonsl.
Date 1S25. Height a| in. Base 3T7a in.
[At the Sheffield Public Museum)
(Reproduced by permission of the Corporation 0* Sheffield.

SUGAR BASINS 215
Crespell, the London makers, produced examples
in the Adam style. Some of the silversmiths'
work is pierced sheet silver, so that in regard to
comparison with Sheffield there is in appearance
not much to choose.
These basins were a later luxury of a more
effeminate age. In 1711, according to the Spec
tator, in a " celebrated Coffee House near the
Temple " an elderly ill-dressed man " called for
a Dish of Tea, but as several Gentlemen of the
Room wanted other things, the Boys of the
House did not think themselves at leisure to
mind him. ... At last one of the Rascals pre
sented him with some stale Tea in a broken Dish,
accompanied with a Plate of Brown Sugar." We
are not concerned with the rest of the story, how
the old stranger found his son in the well dressed
habitud of the House, and exclaimed " Hark you,
sirrah, I'll pay off your extravagant Bills once
more, but will take Effectual care for the Future
that your Prodigality shall not spirit up a parcel
of Rascals to insult your Father." But we are
interested in the " stale Tea in a broken Dish,"
and the " Plate of Brown Sugar " excites our
curiosity inasmuch as it comes as a surprise to
learn that other sugar was then in use ; possibly
it was candied on strings as we remember it in
our boyhood at the table of an old-fashioned
prelate and recluse. But centrifugally whitened
and crystallized sugar it cannot have been, for
that belongs to days within memory.

216 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
A later example of sugar basin with melon-
shaped body is in date about 1825 and its bold
handles are finely ornamented. The rim and the
foot have a pleasing contour following the fourteen
sections of the repousse body (illustrated, p. 213).
It was made by Dixon and Sons, and the mark
is a star with the letters D and S on each side.

VII
SOUP TUREENS
HOT WATER JUGS
THE MARKS OF THE MAKERS
THE SUPPER TABLE

21?

CHAPTER VII
Soup tureens — Hot water jugs — The marks of the
makers — The supper table.
There has been a recent dispersal of many fine
collections of old silver plate, much of which
consisted of glorious examples of periods which
could and would only be used on state occasion
at the dinner table. However much the possessor
of old plate may love his family heirlooms, there
is a hesitancy in actually bringing into use even
in rare circumstances old plate of the Stuart period.
Even though he may not be a connoisseur he
might prefer some of his second-best silver for
common use especially in days when people of
high and low degree have often come very near
to dining with Duke Humphry. It would there
fore seem somewhat of a hollow mockery to bring
out of the silver closet fine Queen Anne or early
Georgian services with provender as bare almost
as the larder of the Count Federigo degli Alberighi
in Tennyson's " Falcon," in which story is told
how that " noble bird " came to be served up as
a meal for the lady Giovanna. Hence silver plate
that is not used has been deemed a luxury to
219

220 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
be sold under the hammer, and another race of
owners will treasure old silver though it may not
have come down from their ancestors.
The Soup Tureen. — That prologue to the
banquet heralded and brought in with ceremony,
from whose uncovered urn issues forth the incense
to the feast, from which savoury and warming
nectar, compounded of rare ingredients and rich
essences, is dealt forth to titillate the palate, that
forerunner of entrees and roasts, of baked meats
and dainty sweets, marks the status of the chef —
it is at this point that one determines whether
or not he is a true cordon bleu. Hence the trappings
of so great a caldron must fit the occasion. The
soup tureen that is insignificant is a cruse that
promiseth no oil. It betokeneth poverty of in
vention and it might better be an earthern crock
which fortune might mayhap endow with golden
contents. Perhaps the silversmiths have imagined all
this or carried on a train of thought resulting in
producing soup tureens of fine design and im
posing character, and Sheffield has followed with
her replicas and as the needle follows the pole.
We must look to Paul Lamerie, to Peter
Archambo in the early period and Paul Storr at
the end of the century for silver prototypes.
The Sheffield plated Soup Tureen illustrated
(p. 221) with tray is typical of the fine stability
of design which came as an inheritance from the
Queen Anne period, soberness and reticence with-

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED SOUP TUREEN.
With cover and tray. Tureen urn-shaped, the rim raised at two points, with lion masks and rings. Cover surmounted
by strap handle. Date 1805. Tureen gg in. high. Cover n in. diameter. Tray i2| in. by 16 in.
[At the Public Museum, Sheffield)
(Reproduced by t>ermissio7i ofthe Corficration o> Sheffield.)

SOUP TUREENS 223
out that added touch of classic austerity which
brought Greece and Rome to the English dinner
table, and scattered the gods of Olympus through
out Staffordshire. The rim of the vessel is raised
at two points, as is the tray. The godroon orna
ment is quietly sufficient to sustain the dignity
of the design. The lion and mask handles com
plete a fine piece of restraint in composition.
When this made its appearance at table depend
upon it it was followed by sound cuisine, and the
port of mine host was well chosen and from
the right bin.
The Tureen illustrated (p. 225) is of the year
of Waterloo. It is oval and stands on scroll feet,
and the beautiful graduated form of the lid is
especially noticeable. The rim is richly, though
not too lavishly, decorated for so fine a piece.
The upper portion of the cover springs in dome
like fluted conformation and is surmounted by a
handle with floriated base. The handles, a strong
feature in well designed tureens, are practical, as
are other portions of the ornament cleverly executed
in die work.
Another Soup Tureen illustrated (p. 225) is of
oval form with massive handles suggesting those
of an urn. It carries its heavy decoration well,
but the base is too rococo with its swirling curves.
This example has a pierced heater with spirit
lamp in centre. This is in date 1825, when
Canning " called the New World into existence
to redress the balance of the Old."

224 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
An interesting Tureen exhibiting the restless
ness of motifs and the travail of the artist in his
search for new designs is exemplified in the speci
men illustrated (p. 229) where an excellence of
technique is at once apparent. There is a beauty
and a grace in the cover with its delicate incised
chain ornament, its repousse floral design and the
striking godroon edge. The cover is surmounted
by a ball on a leaf base. On the body the raised
design, especially with the fruit and foliage,
resembles that found on posset pots of the seven
teenth century, but it is marred by an unfortunate
leaf in the centre with a rib so prominent as to
suggest casting. This is an undoubted blemish in
ornament as the eye cannot leave this spot. But
a bold attempt to win originality is shown in
the legs and feet, which are of a curious and
striking floral design, boldly rococo and somewhat
Italianate in character ; at first glance one expects
to find them to be cherubs.
Entree Dishes are always, when at their best,
ripe with well-conceived and well-balanced orna
ment. The illustration (p. 233) shows a specimen,
one of a set of four, with delightful design. The
richly ornamented rims and the finely considered
balance in regard to the double-tier effect make
this especially acceptable. The cover has a finely
ribbed effect which catches the play of light and
displays its full effect and the ribs are so unob
trusive as almost to escape notice, but the full
bodied effect is carried out to perfection.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED SOUP TUREEN.
Richly ornamented with scroll ornament. Date 1815.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED SOUP TUREEN.
Rococo scroll ornament, pierced heater, with spirit lamp in centre. Date 1825.
(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq.)
225

HOT WATER JUGS 227
Another example of a later date, 1825, stands
on its fine perforated ornament in the body.
The feet are somewhat close together, and are
made to appear more so by the dome-like cover
swelling almost pear-shaped to an apex decorated
by a cone. It is an unusual form, and free, not
withstanding its idiosyncrasies, from the glaring
evils of elaborate and feeble decoration found
at a slightly later date which impoverished design
for the next thirty years.
Hot Water Jugs. — The form of the jug offers
endless possibilities to the artist who designs
practical shapes that the metal worker, the glass-
blower, or the potter can bring into being, each
according to his technique. It is the duty of
the artist, if he be practical as well as ideal, to
offer only such designs as can be easily worked
in the particular craft for which he is drawing
his designs. In regard to narrow-necked vessels
there is the suggestion that they are more suited
to the potter than to the metal worker. In the
East, where metal workers carry on traditions
that go back long ages, we do not find that wide-
mouthed vessels claim preference. It is not so
much that the craftsmen are conservative and
do not seek new forms, but rather that, having
mastered their technique, they confine themselves
to its limitations recognized centuries ago. There
is no doubt that the narrow-necked jar in the old
fable of the Fox and the Crane was one made by
the potter. The difficulties in technique in manipu-

228 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
lating a jug such as is illustrated (p. 235) must
have been great, though not insuperable.
But the fine Adam jug, with this premiss as
to narrow vessels in general, offers a superlative
example of the Adam style executed as early
as 1770 (illustrated, p. 235). The square base with
ball, feet, the simple festoon of drapery, encircling
rosettes but not being supported by them, the band
of ribbed ornament placed just at that position
where it attains the maximum effect, the fine
exquisitely balanced proportions of the neck as
natural and wonderful as nature in graceful birds
such as the swan, and the pleasing lines in the
curve of the spout — all these points are points of
beauty impossible to describe in words, but quick
to strike the trained eye satiated with improper
ornament and feverishly awaiting the advent of
pure unalloyed beauty of form. One never grows
weary of contemplating such a perfect example
as this of the art of the modern metal worker, that
is modern since the old days of Greece and Rome,
and modern as in comparison with the outburst
of the great Italian Renaissance.
Two other hot water jugs are illustrated (p. 229)
each typifying forms into which the metal worker
converted his sheet silver. That on the left is
severe in form. It represents the spirit of classi
cism cold and unsatisfying. The absence of the
curve in the body and the straight lines at the
shoulder might have proved, had Hogarth seen
it, some of his points as to the line of beauty.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED HOT WATER JUGS
Circular base : lower part of body decor
ated with star fluting. Cover sur
mounted b}' pineapple. Dated 1775.

Urn-shaped body on octagonal foot.
Classic ornament. Silver shield.
Date 1795.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED TUREEN.
With floral repoussd decoration and four spirally fluted scroll legs. Cover richly chased and
gadrooned, surmounted by ball. Date 1815.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.)
229

THE MARKS OF MAKERS 231
The plane surfaces are too few to be attractive,
to increase their number would be to depart from
a simplicity of outline at which the artist-designer
has aimed. The elongated handle striking a
sharp acute angle adjacent to the edge of the
broad facetted body offers a inharmonious note
The space between the handle and the body is
not a pleasing space to the eye. In technique
the jug is perfect, as perfect as the silversmiths
could fashion it, and as representative a replica
as Sheffield could turn out. The eye wanders to
the upper portion and finds restfulness, and it
is this upper portion which makes the jug lovable
and beautiful.
Its fellow on the same page affects a new form.
Its handle carries one back to the porringer of
Stuart days with its out-turned terminal. The
body swells with beautiful symmetrical curves.
Its plain cold effect is relieved by the broken
flutings carried part of the way up. The spout
again is reminiscent of the earlier forms in the
flagon of bye-gone days. The cover has a delight
ful pineapple ornament of sufficient size to give
character to the piece. Although composite in
its conception it takes its place on a plane
indubitably its own.
The Marks of Makers.— Having extolled the
object made, it would be delightful to be able
to extol the maker. But the records of the copyist
platers of Sheffield are not in such an exact state
as to determine this. Even when certain initials

232 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
and marks identify a particular firm, and one
has run it to earth, one is confronted with the
proposition as to who did actually make the
piece. At what particular part of the chain,
leaving out the drawers of the ingot from the
charcoal fire and the mechanical rollers, was it
fashioned by the man whom we wish to admire.
Names of firms we know are hall marks as to
quality. In silver formerly the maker did make
the piece to which he was proud to stamp his
initials, but even then the law conspired to cheat
him of the guerdon of posterity's worship. The
initials of Christian name and surname that is
sensible enough. We all are aware of that abbre
viation, and of accredited signs, from E.R.,
Elizabeth Regina, to the butterfly of Whistler.
But disguised under the first two letters of his
surname the silversmith in 1697, by William III,
8 & 9, cap. 8, left little evidence of his personality.
William Keith becomes KE and Robert Cooper
is CO, and Seth Lotfhouse is L.O. In 1739 by
George II, 12, cap. 26, just before the Sheffield
period, the first two initial letters of Christian
name and surname became compulsory. So that
there is every reason why at Sheffield, the work
men who executed the mouldings and the crafts
men who pierced the design or chased it, should
have added their initials. The die sinker might
go by the board, but the artisan who with the
highest art concealed art with his die work and
his wire, he too might place his sign. There are

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED ENTREE DISH.
One of four, with heavy ornament of scroll design. Date 1815

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED ENTREE DISH.
With bulbous cover surmounted by rose. Date 1825.
(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq.)
233

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED HOT WATER JUG.
Urn-shaped, on base with claw feet. Rosette decoration carried out in base and body,
together with festoons. Shoulder and base ornamented with band of vertical
fluting. This example typifies the Adam style at its best. Date 1770.
(By courtesy oj Walter H. Willson, Esq.)
235

THE MARKS OF MAKERS 237
workmen's marks, but nowadays they mean
nothing except that they are " workmen's marks."
On Worcester porcelain it is the same, certain
symbols are believed to be workmen's marks.
That is all. The French were wiser. At Sevres
the marks of each painter, decorator, and gilder
of the porcelain from 1753 to 1800 is duly recorded.
A crescent denoted that Ledoux painted the birds,
LG tells that Le Guay did the gilding, a pair of
compasses show that Mutel painted the land
scapes, LR stands for La Roche and his medallions
and emblems, F is Falot for butterflies, and so
on. There are over a hundred and twenty known
workmen's marks. And in 1750 the French
cabinetmakers stamped their names on their
works. That certain workmen's marks did appear on
the old Sheffield plate indicate pride of work of
execution. But specialization should not have
stamped out personality to the extent that it
apparently did. Even names of firms are for
gotten and initials of producers are not always
readily traceable. There is much research needed
in regard to old Sheffield plate. Much has already
been done. But the idolatry of the Sheffield
replica standing as it does on its perfect technique,
should be carried back a stage. We have said
nothing of the artist designer and draughtsman
who carefully, with skilled pencil, worked out the
drawings to be carried out by the craftsmen.
He it was who stood between the silver plate

238 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
prototype and the silver plated translation. The
admiration should be extended to the original
makers of the models. A scientific classification
of old Sheffield plate should set out to identify
what particular makers and designers of silver
plate were copied by the silver platers of Sheffield
and elsewhere. A collection of Sheffield plate
without the knowledge as to the fount from which
it came is like a collection of interpretative en
gravings from old masters' paintings with the old
painters' names omitted.
The Supper Table. — In an age when a con
siderable amount of inventiveness was displayed
in regard to economical forms of furniture, such
as folding tables, library steps which shut up,
dressing tables with wings that pulled forward,
telescopic dining tables were invented and patented
in 1830 by Richard Gillow, and nests of drawers
arranged as though space were as great a desider
atum as it is in a modern flat, it is not surprising
to find that the metal workers at Sheffield came
into line with the fashion for neat and ingenious
contrivances for the table. A special feature was
made of small delicate fitted appurtenances for
the card room and the supper table. Collapsible
toast racks were made about 1825 to 1830 standing
on four ball and claw feet, by a firm stamping
its name as R.C. & Co. Tinder-boxes with candle
sticks were cunningly contrived. Reading shades
came into being with circular green silk guards,
capable of being raised and lowered and manipu-

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED TOASTED CHEESE DISHES.

Showing interior with six compart
ments. Dale 1800.

Showing exterior : cover with orna
ment. Date 1810.

(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq.)

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED PIPE LIGHTER.
With pierced escalloped top, wooden handle, and on tray with pierced rim on claw and
ball feet. Date 1783.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq)
239

THE SUPPER TABLE 241
lated in a variety of positions. Many of these
articles only achieved a momentary'success. But
among those remaining are certain supper dishes
for serving cheese. In the example illustrated
(p. 239) it is seen that it has six compartments
for toasted cheese to be served hot and kept hot.
These cheese dishes are uncommon. The handle
is wood. In date this is about 1800, the adjacent
example is about 1810 and has applied shell and
foliage at the corners of the cover, and a similar
wooden handle.
A fine specimen of a little known article of
former use is illustrated on the same page. It
is a Pipe Lighter, with pierced and escalloped edge.
It has three ball and claw feet. It stands on a
circular tray finely pierced having ball and claw
feet. It might at first glance suggest to the
collector that it was Dutch in origin, and suggests
some form of charcoal brazier, but it is indubitably
a remarkable specimen of old Sheffield plated work
in date about 1783.

VIMCENTREPIECES THE CENTREPIECE
THE DESTRUCTION OF OLD DIES
THE MELTING DOWN OF MASSIVE SHEFFIELD
PLATE
THE PASSING OF THE DINNER TABLE

CHAPTER VIII
CENTREPIECES
The centrepiece — The destruction of old dies — The
melting down of massive Sheffield plate — The
passing of the dinner table.
The centrepiece was the piece de resistance ; it made
an imposing feature with its fruit which was to
be served at dessert ; it has developed later into
an object for floral decoration standing as a monu
ment of colour on the table, and was in more
modern usage combined with lights when the
old candelabra were considered to be out of date,
and before the modern electric candelabrum made
its appearance. Accordingly, we find massive
decoration and strong bold design in most of
these centrepieces. The Frontispiece illustrates
an especially fine example with ten baskets of
glass and the twisted branches are constructed
to give the massive piece a lightness and a grace,
although it was necessary to have a certain solidity
to carry its heaped-up delicacies. There is a
fine balance in this example and it is typical of
the openwork centrepiece as distinct from a more
massive form introduced when an ambitious bid
10 m

246 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
made by Sheffield for recognition in carrying out
the modelled figures and other elaborate structures
which became so prevalent in the first thirty
years of the nineteenth century.
Another example produced in wire work in
early manner, in date about 1790, is illustrated
(p. 247). This is on four ball feet and has a large
basket at the top, vase-like in form, with handles.
From the standard supported by three C-shaped
branches are suspended four smaller baskets. Its
lightness and flexibility of design are its notice
able features and there is a practicability too in
the form as the small baskets with handles can
be readily removed from the branches on which
they hang.
A massive centrepiece with stand on four richly
moulded feet in French style is ornamented by
heavily gadrooned architectural ornament. This
supports three semi-nude female figures who
form a column which is surmounted by a large
urn-shaped basket ornamented with interlaced
bands and floral pierced work. A heavy glass
bowl of cut glass with serrated rim and facetted
ribs completes a grandiose piece representative
of the period about 1825. (Illustrated, p. 251).
Other forms are found with peculiarities of
design which win acclamation, though on the
whole there is always in comparison with the
silversmiths' art of a century earlier something
undesirable, not so much as to what is lacking
but what has been added, There is a departure

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CENTREPIECES.
Withfinely-cut glass dish in centre, and five branches supporting Oval wire basket, with double wire handles on standard. Four
Elaborate scroll ornament embodying smaller circular baskets supported from C-shaped branches.
Date 1810. On scroll feet, with bar and ball ornament. Date 1790.
The two examples typify the ornate and the simple in design.
(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq)

smaller glass dishes.
the Prince of Wales's feathers as central support.

CENTREPIECES 249
from soberness and an attempt to give ornament
a place whether ornament is necessary or not.
This effort to be ultra-artistic more often than
not over-reached itself and the results do not
give the same aesthetic pleasure as those of earlier
designers who know the golden rule in art — what
to omit. But comparisons are odious. We take
representative examples of a period and continue
the study and give them the respect due, and
when one finds an oasis in a desert of meretricious
art one is profoundly thankful.
The Centrepiece illustrated (p. 247) offers many
points of attractiveness. It attempts magnifi
cence and almost achieves it. The employment
of three ostrich feathers in the design suggests
at once the period of George IV. It has been
employed in minor pieces by the silversmith as
it was successfully used by Hepplewhite in his
carved mahogany chair-backs. This is not the
only example known with similar feather decora
tion so prominently featuring in the design. There
is another example with outstretched plain branches
having four cups so far removed from the central
standard as to suggest gas-globes. The feathers
by this arrangement are given an undue prominence
and lose the graceful effect they have in the example
here illustrated, where the curved branches with
rich scroll ornament harmonize with the more
prominent central support for the cut glass dish.
The branches support four smaller cut glass dishes
of really fine character. This cut glass work is

250 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
of the most beautiful character and adds greatly
to the grandeur of the piece.
As indicating the return of the Sheffield workers
to designs prior to their own day the Chestnut
Dish and Cover illustrated (p. 255) offers con
clusive proof. It has all the quietude of the work
produced in the Queen Anne period. It depends
for its effect on its form and the play of light on
its surface. The twisted handles are terminated
by lion masks. The foot is plain, but the edge
of the rim of the body is quietly godrooned.
The lid is surmounted by an oval knob, which
the Staffordshire potters seized later as their
own. The accompanying illustration shows a
Fruit Basket, in date about 1810, and it resembles
the work of Paul Storr, the London maker of
that period. It is of simple basket form. Its
broad rim emulates the technique of the basket
maker in appearance and is equally necessary
here in order to add to the strength of a design
carried out in wire. The base is oval and stands
on four claw feet in combination with scroll
design as shown in other examples in candelabra
and other work, of the same period.
The Destruction of Old Dies.— The Sheffield
firms were not wise in their generation. They
committed a great blunder which they regretted
for long afterwards. We do not say that this
led to the extinction of the industry, for there
were other very important causes which resulted
in silver plating in the old style being superseded.

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CENTREPIECE.
Hexagonal base on scroll feet. Urn-shaped wire basket, supported
by three semi-nude female figures, surmounted by large cir
cular cut-glass bowl.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq)

251

CENTREPTECES 253
But undoubtedly the destruction of old dies by
a number of firms did lead to the constant pro
duction of work which might very well have
been left undone. When the fashion for the
classic designs of the Adam period and that
immediately succeeding it was found to have
been discarded, these old dies were melted
down for the value of the metal. They repre
sented many thousands of pounds outlay to each
of the firms who had produced them, and nowadays,
when reticence and sobriety of design have again
come into their own after the long night of the
early and later Victorian meaningless trivialities
in design in metal work, these old dies would
have won distinction by their re-employment.
But they must remain a sad memory to those
who know what once has been, and as so often
happens in any industry dependent on the caprice
of fashion, it is easy to be wise after the event.
The Melting Down of Massive Sheffield
Plate. — Yet another deplorable misfortune over
took Sheffield plate. It was found that the copper
in some of the old examples was valuable. Prices
of copper had risen, and on the other hand
silver had fallen. Certain enterprising firms deal
ing in metals began to collect all the old Sheffield
plated examples they could lay hands on, and
they ruthlessly melted them down. Quite con
siderable sums of money were made in this manner,
and very few fine pieces were rescued from destruc
tion. Though we heard of one instance of a dealer

254 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
who was artistic enough to select certain examples
that he liked for their beauty, and his family
have them to this day. We hope his taste was
sound. But the result was to aim a blow at
collecting Sheffield plate, and to create many
a hiatus which collectors find to their chagrin
to-day. The Passing of the Dinner Table— With all
due respect to modernity there is in middle-
class households still to be observed an absence
of taste in \ silver. There is silver present and
enough of it. But not sufficient care has been
paid to studying the fine forms and the exquisite
creations of former generations of English silver
smiths. Now and again great surprise is ex
pressed at big prices realized at Christie's or
elsewhere for fine specimens of plate. But as
to the general education relating to the art of
the silversmith and the really beautiful designs
that have come down for hundreds of years as
ornaments to the dinner table the average city
merchant and the average man of affairs has
surprisingly little knowledge. When he steps
out of his own world into that of art he stumbles
blindly and often wilfully. His pictures please
him and he is often boastful concerning them —
but there are others who know different.
Perhaps nowadays the hotel and restaurant
habit has contributed not a little to disturbing
the pride that the Englishman took in his own
table. A hundred years ago, and right down to

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CHESTNUT DISH.
Plain design in Queen Anne style : silver gadrooned edges : lion
mask handles. Date 1810.
(In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq.)

OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED FRUIT BASKET.
In fluted oval base, wilh four scroll feet. Wire work design ; broad gadrooned rim.
Date 1810.
(By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq )
255

CENTREPIECES 257
the time immediately preceding our own — the
days of Thackeray and Dickens — there was a
keen regard by the host for the appointments of
his table. He carefully laid down wine, he person
ally supervised his cellars and knew the tempera
ture necessary to maintain the character of the
contents of his bins. He was a connoisseur in
wines ; nowadays he leaves that sort of thing
to his wine-merchant. He kept an eye, too, on
the plate closet, and knew to a nicety what par
ticular services and what special vessels fitted
functions over which he presided. Perhaps life
has become more complex for him to-day, possibly
he now pays more attention to his golf clubs and
his motor-car. He has more extraneous pleasures,
and after all modernity has its claims on his
time. He may suffer less from gout than did his
sires. But as a giver of a feast, as a host with
inner knowledge, as a man sensitive for the palates
of his guests, the modern host is not the same host
as was his grandfather.

IX CLOSE PLATING
CLOSE PLATING
THE BUCKLE MAKERS
GERMAN SILVER AND OTHER WHITE METALS
THE FACTORY SYSTEM
THE END OF THE STORY

CHAPTER IX
CLOSE PLATING
Close plating — The buckle makers — German silver and
otter white metals — The factory system — The end
of the story.
Apart from the process of covering baser metals
with silver by fusion and preparing sheets of
copper superimposed with silver by rolling, there
was the earlier process always designated as
French plating. As we have shown, the plating
of baser metals was nothing new, but the Sheffield
process was a new invention which had far-
reaching results. About the year 1800 a great
many small articles in common use were manu
factured by a method known as close plating.
Knives, snuffers, skewers, buckles, spurs and
harness were subjected to this means of silver
plating. A great many of these articles have
the name of the maker stamped upon them.
Fruit knives, table spoons and forks, fish knives,
sugar tongs, and in fact all small articles which
it was easier to make in this manner than manipu
late from the silver plated sheet.
Iron skewers were so plated with silver and

262 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
steel blades of knives. An iron skewer made in
Ireland is marked " Sly. Dublin," and the marks
of the makers of the close plated work are as
difficult to trace and identify as some of the others
in the process of plating by fusion. Horday & Co.
is found on some late examples, and the fleur-de-lys
is another mark frequently seen. The close plating
process seems to have been followed both at
Birmingham and Sheffield from about 1795, and
was subsequently employed in London. The base
for close plating was mainly iron or steel. Instead
of resorting to the longer and more expensive
mechanical process of fusion and rolling, the
article intended to be plated with silver was
covered with a thin sheet of silver and while hot
it was burnished down to the core of the baser
metal, by means of a compound of lead and tin,
which, employed at a low temperature, did not
lessen the temper of the article thus plated.
It is to be observed, however, that the per
manency of close plated articles cannot be com
pared with those produced under the rolling
process. Whatever may be the reason there
seems to be a weakness in the technique, for it
is found that they are strongly affected by exposure
to damp or extreme heat.
The Buckle Makers. — It has been asserted
that Boulsover made buckles ; this is unlikely.
The trade had mainly settled in Birmingham
and Wolverhampton, and there was an extensive
trade carried on in London. The fashion of the

CLOSE PLATING 263
buckle underwent many vicissitudes in fortune.
The Puritans adopted shoe strings. It was in
Stuart days that Herrick sang of his mistress :
A careless shoe string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility.
Silk laces with silver fringes and tags were in
fashion on the eve of the Restoration, although
the common folk confined themselves to leather
laces. All through the eighteenth century the buckle
was worn. Sometimes, happily for the buckle
makers, the fashions grew so extravagant that
the ladies wore such large square buckles either
of silver or silver plated as almost to conceal
their feet. Towards the end of the century
fashion deserted the buckle makers and they
were in a parlous state. It was natural that
they termed the displacement " the most ridicu
lous of all ridiculous fashions the effeminate
shoe string." Birmingham, Walsall and Wolver
hampton employed no less than twenty thousand
workers in the buckle industry, and they could
ill afford to be flouted by the fickle jade Fashion.
In 1792 the buckle makers of the provinces
determined to enlist the sympathies of the First
Gentleman in Europe on their behalf. They
were introduced to the Prince of Wales by Sheridan.
They represented that although the interest of
the button manufacture had enlisted parliamentary
assistance they had no redress against the shoe-

264 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
string. They did not desire sumptuary penalties,
but they claimed the personal support of His
Royal Highness to obviate the stagnation of trade
causing " miseries, emigrations and other horrible
consequences." The buckle makers' petition runs as follows :
" We beg leave to observe, that when Fashion,
instead of foreign or unprofitable ornaments,
wears and consumes the manufactures of this
country, she puts on a more engaging form, and
becomes Patriotism. When Taste, at the same
time and by the same means that she decorates
the persons of the rich, clothes and fills the naked
and hungry poor, she deserves a worthier appel
lation, and may be styled Humanity. We make
no doubt but your Royal Highness will prefer
the blessings of the starving manufacturer to
the encomiums of the drawing-room. We know
it is to no purpose to address Fashion herself ;
she is void of feeling, and deaf to argument ; but,
fortunately, she is subject to your control. She
has been accustomed to listen to your voice, and
obey your commands."
The Prince of Wales, followed by the Duke of
York, ordered the discontinuance of the use of
shoe-strings by members of his household.
The buckle makers of London and Westminster
followed in the wake of their provincial brethren,
by publishing an appeal to the public, complaining
that, however mischievous the whim, however
effeminate the appearance of shoe-strings, the

CLOSE PLATING 265
wearing of them still increased, and hoping that
henceforth no philanthropic friend to his country
would, by following an evil example, virtually
take part in snatching the bread out of the mouths
of thousands of poor and industrious families.
They also petitioned the King and Queen, the
Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of York,
the Princess Royal, and her brothers Clarence
and Gloucester, to aid them in their extremity.
They unbosomed their cares to King George as
a parent and protector whose soul was his people's.
They assured Queen Charlotte that her disapproval
of shoe-strings coming into her royal presence,
would suffice to reinstate them in their former
blessings ; while they told the Princess that if
she would but wear buckles, they should no longer
remain monuments of silent grief, but commemo
rate with grateful peals of acclamation the annual
return of the day which shone so propitious on
their wants. Equally lavish of praise and prayer
to the rest of the royal family, they reserved
(for some unknown reason) the most extraor
dinary of their appeals for the Duke of York.
After informing him that " honour, dignity, and
birth are like the landscape when the luminary is
behind a cloud, without the rays of beneficence
tinging each distinction with its inherent bright
ness," they remind him that ribbon, leather,
and whipcord threaten to ruin a staple manufac
ture doing an incredible trade abroad, and humbly
pray his Royal Highness to discourage shoe-

266 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
strings " both militarily and domestically." Then
they break out : " Conceive what immense numbers
of persons have spent the prime of their youth
and manhood ; entered into connections ; increased
their families ; and embarked their all, having this
trade for a dependence. Their hearts bleeding at
the cruel inconsiderate capriciousness of Fashion ;
difficulties and impossibilities rise in quick suc
cession to defeat the probability of fixing on any
other branch or occupation. The nuptial tie,
pitiably relaxed by reiterated sorrows ; the children
cry louder and more vehemently for food ; the
husband unmanned ; his wonted courage fails ;
the wife, more delicately sensible, is not able to
resist one of the obtruding woes which crowd
upon her mind. Few friends before ! less than
ever now ! Demands come quickest upon the
most needy, often reminded of their bereaved
trade, and no philosopher's stone to smooth the
creditor's brow ! Now spread wide the happy
cause, the prospect changes ; Hope with cheering
looks advances. A letter from the trade at large
informs them of our appeal to your Royal High
ness. Instantly they assemble, and congratulate
each other they have so glorious a source of
expectation ! Hope, with magic power, appeased
their hunger, removed their despondency, makes
the manufacturer's heart dance with joy ; and the
Duke and Duchess of York echoes in their cups,
toast after toast. And your petitioners will ever
pray."

CLOSE PLATING 267
The result of all this was that buckles were
unusually prevalent at the Queen's birthday draw
ing-room, held soon afterwards, when the beauty
and brilliancy of the buckles worn by the Prince
of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Earl of Fife
attracted general notice and admiration. It was
but a transient triumph : Royalty failed to control
Fashion ; and although exceedingly small buckles
were occasionally seen down to 1800, their fate
was sealed, and by 1812 the buckle was extinct.
German Silver and White Metals. — The
early silver plating was on soft copper, but towards
the end of the plating period, an alloy was made
with brass in order to give the base a greater
strength and possibly for reasons of economy.
Later German silver was introduced as a base.
It was hard. It was not altogether a success,
possibly by reason of its greater cost. But it
had the quality of forming a hard solid basis
beneath the silver plate, and when the latter
showed signs of wear the German silver, being
of a light colour, did not come into undue promi
nence in betraying the wear and tear.
There is also tutenag, an obscure metal, an
alloy of antimony and zinc which was known to
the Chinese, though not much has been written
concerning this alloy and its employment in this
country for articles of artistic excellence. But
candlesticks and fenders have been made of
pleasing appearance and having good wearing
qualities. Then there is the Britannia metal
11

26& CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
period where pewter and Britannia metal met.
In fact, during the latter days of Sheffield plating
there were many minor competitors offering sub
stitutes for the silver plating ' at a lower price.
Commercialism was in the air, and at the flood the
old methods of plating by fusion were swept away.
The Factory System. — Looked at from all
points of view the Sheffield plating industry
betrayed the rise of the factory system, as did also
the great Wedgwood and other Staffordshire firms.
The factory system, by reason of its systemization,
apportions set tasks to a chain of individuals, so
that no one individual can be said to be an artist-
craftsman in the same sense that he would have
been in the old days. The old Italian masters
compounded their own pigments and carved and
gilded their own frames. Life was then more
crystallized. The viciousness of the factory sys
tem was that it destroyed the personality of the
craftsman. In latter days strong movements
have been inaugurated to attempt to revive art
industries where the artist craftsmen will not be
obliterated under the name of a firm or a syndicate.
The End of the Story. — It has been shown
throughout this volume that old Sheffield plate
by reason of its artistic excellence, should be
treasured and loved. Its fashioning is most
certainly a lost art. The old methods have
disappeared for ever. It would be impossible
to procure workmen nowadays with the fine
instinct shown by those under the old regime.

CLOSE PLATING 269
If a return were made to the old process in
lieu of the solid plate ; if, let it be granted,
that electro-plate were superseded by a freak of
fashion which demanded Sheffield plate in the
old manner, the operation would still be impossible.
The cost of producing Sheffield plate by fusion
and rolling would be greater than if it were solid
silver. Hence collectors have realized the value,
not only aesthetically but the actual value of a
fine series of wonderful works of art produced in
an artistic manner which can never come again.
It has been collected by far seeing enthusiasts,
and they have bought at prices which will never
occur again. Recently at Christie's a set of four
Adam style candlesticks brought thirty-two pounds.
But this was not too much for so splendid a tech
nique. And without doubt old Sheffield plate,
especially in examples that are not forthcoming
as having been made in silver plate, will command
much higher prices in the future. English earthen
ware in some instances has eclipsed porcelain in
regard to prices under the hammer, and engravings
after paintings in oil finely executed in a masterly
technique, never again to be equalled or at
tempted, have won a greater acclamation at
auction than the originals. Technique is a factor
and a great determining factor in collecting,
and sound connoisseurship recognizes this. Old
Sheffield plated ware in its finest period exhibits
one of the most surprising techniques in metal
work ever produced in this country.

APPENDIX

EXAMPLES SHOWING
TYPES OF HALL MARKS
ON SILVER PLATE
Used by the various
Assay Offices in operation
during the Manufacture of
Sheffield Plated Ware

II
EXAMPLES OF MARKS
Found on old
Sheffield Plate
during the period
1753 to 1840

I EXAMPLES SHOWING
TYPES OF HALL MARKS
ON SILVER PLATE1
Used by the various Assay Offices :
London, Exeter, Chester,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York,
Sheffield, Birmingham,
Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Dublin, and Cork

' The Position of Marks. — Marks are not placed on old silver
in a straight line. They are shown in this manner for con
venience, and are the author's own arrangement. They are
in practice irregularly stamped and sometimes upside down.
The maker put his stamp on the piece prior to sending it to
the Assay Office. The remaining stamps were done under
the directions of the Wardens. Although the maker's mark
was stamped first, some of the other marks were placed on
either side of it.

273

274 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
The following series of Hall Marks on Silver by the various
Assay Offices are given as they fix the exact date when
certain types of silver were made, and the maker's stamp with
initials enables identification. It is only by comparison with
original examples of dated silver that approximate dates can be
ascertained of old Sheffield plate which set out to copy silver.
Accordingly, the work of the following London makers should
be studied with a view to establishing the original designers
of many of the old Sheffield replicas. The following great
masters came on the threshold of the Sheffield plate invention :
Paul Crispin (1743) ; Paul Lamerie (1746) ; John Cafe (1749) ;
Peter Taylor (Tea Caddies) (1747) ; Frederick Kandler (Ink
stands) (1757) ; Thomas Whipham (1747) ; John Swift (Coffee
Pots) (1749) ; Richard Rugg (1754) ; WilUam Grundy (1757) ;
Edward Wakelin (1753) ; Isaac Duke (Sauce Boats) (1743) ;
Simon Jouet (1747) ; George Wickes (Candlesticks) (1750) ;
Samuel Taylor (Caddies, Sugar Basins) (1756) ; Henry Herbert
(1753)- When the Sheffield industry was at its height the following
London makers had established a reputation for various classes
of designs which they had made their own.
Sugar Basins (Fine pierced and festoon work) : Benjamin
Gignac (1761) ; J. Denizlow (1781) ; Henry Chawner (1792) ;
L. Heme and F. Butty (1750) ; Daniel Smith and Robert
Sharp (1769) ; S. Herbert & Co. (1767).
Cream Jugs, Sauce Boats : Samuel Meriton (1761) ; Walter
Brind (1763) ; Parker and Wakelin (1775) ; James Wilkes
(1784) ; Peter and Anne Bateman (1791).
Candelabra and Candlesticks : Robert Hennell (1777) ;
Wakelyn and Taylor (1782) ; John Tayleur (1786) ; John
Schofield (1786).
Centrepieces : WilUam Plummer (Adam Style, 1787).
Tureens and Services : Dave Smith and Robert Sharp
(1747) ; Thomas Heming (1772) ; WilUam Pitts and Joseph
Preedy (1793) ; Robert Sharp (Wine Coolers) (1803) ; Samuel
Hennell (Wine Coolers) (1813) ; Paul Storr (1796-1820).
Punch Ladles : Dorothy Mills (1771).
Salt Cellars : Daniel Hennell (1758).
Inkstands : Thomas Heming (1764).
Toasted Cheese Dishes : Thomas Heming (1779).
Tea Urns : Orlando Jackson (1771).
Teapots and Coffee Pots : WilUam Plummer (Teapots and
Caddies) (1764) ; Frederick Knopfell (1765) ; Samuel Taylor
(Caddies) (1770) ; W. Cripps (1762) ; Samuel Wood (1785);
WilUam Shaw (Caddies) (1788) ; Robert Garrard (1805) ;
PhiUp Rundell (1819).

LONDON

1779

1798

1826

EXETER

1748 275

MARKS ON OLD SILVER 277

The date letters of the various London alphabets are readily
ascertainable. The differences in the shape of the shields
are not great ; the leopard lost his crown in 1821 and has been
cat-Uke in appearance ever since. Exeter continued as an
Assay Office till 1882, but York, which was not mentioned
among the Assay Offices in 1773, recommenced about the
beginning of the nineteenth century and continued till 1870.
Its mark was a St. George's Cross and five diminutive Lions.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne similarly discontinued assaying silver in
1884. Exeter. — The mark, as is shown, is a castle with three
towers. The Date Letters were A-Y (1773-1796). The letter
I was used for two years 1781 and 1782. A-U (1797-1816)
in square shield and a-U (1817-1836) in square shield with four
corners cut off. About 1775 the following silversmiths' marks
are found on Exeter silver : Richard Jenkins, WilUam Coffin,
Richard Freeman, and Thomas Thorne (Plymouth), David
Hawkins (Plymouth), WiUiam Harvey (Plymouth), Richard
Bidlake (Plymouth).
Chester. — The Town Mark formerly was three Demi-Lions
with wheatsheaves on a shield. In 1775 it was changed to
three Wheatsheaves with a dagger, which is still in use at the
Chester Assay Office. In addition there is the Lion passant
and the Leopard's head denoting sterUng silver, as at London.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. — The complete Marks are the Lion
passant, the Leopard's head, the Town or Hall mark of three
Castles, the Date Letter, the Maker's Mark, and the Duty
Mark of the sovereign's head used, as at all other offices,
till 1890, when the duty on silver plate was abohshed.
Sheffield. — An Assay Office was estabUshed by Act of
ParUament in 1773 (13 George III, Cap. 52), and Sheffield
obtained the rights to hall mark silver. It is unfortunate that
between 1773 and 1823 the date letters were taken at random.
The difficulty of identifying silver plate between these two
dates (an important period) is thereby increased by this irre
gular choice of the Guardians of the Wrought Silver Plate of
Sheffield. It is as though they had designedly set conundrums
for posterity which none of the other Assay Offices did with
their regular series of date letters. But from 1824-1843 the
alphabet denoting the date runs from a-z (the letters i, j, n,
o, w and y being omitted), and from 1844-1867 the alphabet
was A-Z (J and Q being omitted).

278 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE

The marks on the opposite page have been taken from
specimens of silver plate hall-marked by the various provincial
Assay Offices.
The Chester silversmiths made a variety of excellent plate.
There was Richard Richardson whose designs were in the Queen
Anne style, and doubtless attracted the attention of Sheffield.
In 1768 Bolton and Fothergill made a variety of articles, in
cluding some fine candlesticks, and other silversmiths about
1 775 whose marks were stamped at Chester are : Geo. Walker,
Jas. Dixon, Gimble and Vale (Birmingham), John Gimlet
(Birmingham), Ralph Wakefield (Liverpool), Christian Thyme
(Liverpool), and Ralph Fisher (Liverpool).
The mark given of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Assay Office
is from a Coffee Pot. Although of a sUghtly earUer period
it exhibits the type of mark. Newcastle produced many
tankards, teapots and coffee pots of plain character and simple
form that Sheffield in the early days might have essayed to
copy. The foUowing names of the Newcastle makers may assist
possessors of Sheffield plated ware to estabUsh a paraUel : Isaac
Cookson (1752) ; Robert Makepeace (sauceboats) (1754) ;
Langlands and Goodriche (1754) ; Langlands and Robertson
(1794)- At York in 1819 Robert Cottle and J. Barber were at work
as silversmiths. A teapot of that date made by them, exhibits
fine design.
Early after the passing of the Act in 1773 the Sheffield silver
smiths distinguished themselves by producing fine candlesticks,
and among the early makers' marks with the Sheffield haU
mark of the Crown as the Town Mark of Sheffield, is that of
Samuel Roberts & Co., and this is found together with the
mark of the Lion passant and the Leopard's head. Another
mark on candlesticks of silver (1791) is I. P. & Co. (J. Parsons
& Co.). That Sheffield made silver plate before this is shown
by the evidence before the Select Committee of the House of
Commons in 1773, alluded to on page 63.

CHESTER

F:

1775 Maker, Richard Richardson.

¦if m

1800
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE

1737
YORK

1800
SHEFFIELD

MARKS ON OLD SILVER 281

The Birmingham Assay Office came into being in 1773 under
the same Act as that governing Sheffield (13 George III, Cap.
52). The marks are an Anchor (the Town Mark), a Lion passant,
Date Letter, Maker's initials, and the Duty Mark of the sove
reign's head from 1776.
Scottish marks come under another series of Acts and are
a field to themselves. Besides Edinburgh and Glasgow marks
the number of Scottish marks is legion (Sterling, Perth,
Inverness, Dundee, Aberdeen, Banff, etc.).
Edinburgh used the Standard mark of the Thistle after 1759
in place of the Lion passant found on EngUsh silver. The
haU mark is a Castle with three towers. The alphabets of
Date Letters A-Z and the Maker's initials have been regularly
used since the fifteenth century. The Duty Mark of the sove
reign's head was added in 1784. It was also formerly usual
to add the Assay master's initials.
Glasgow, in honour of her patron saint, St. Kentigern (known
also as St. Mungo) has a haU mark of a Tree with a bird on
uppermost branches, a Bell suspended and. a Salmon trans
versely across the trunk. This fish has a ring in its mouth,
the latter aUuding to the miracle of the recovery of the last
ring of Queen Caidyow. The Standard Mark is the Lion
Rampant, used after 1819, and the Maker's Mark his initials.
The Duty Mark of the sovereign's head was the same as at
Edinburgh. DubUn marks have a figure of Hibernia, a Harp and Crown,
together with Maker's Mark and the Date Letter. The Cork
marks are varied. Sometimes there is a castle stamped twice
and sometimes only the word sterling and the Maker's initials
or mark.

282 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE

Birmingham. — Among the makers of silver plate we find
Matthew Boulton, who also made plated ware, with fine silver
candlesticks with the hall mark and date letter for 1794. The
date letters of the Birmingham alphabets run : A-Z Roman
capitals (1773-1798) ; a-z small Roman (1798-1824) ; %=%
Old EngUsh capitals (1824-1849) ; etc.
Edinburgh.— Among the well-known makers are Joseph
Kerr (1790) and Patrick Robertson (1778). An example is
given of the mark of the latter found on a Coffee Pot made
in 1769.
Dublin. — There are a number of makers with a reputation
for fine designs. R. Calderwood (1760) ; George Beere (1760) ;
J. Laughlin (1765) ; Stephen Walsh (1765) ; W. Townshend
(1765) ; WUl Hughes (1770) ; WUliam Homer (1771) ; Darby
Kehoe (1771) ; Capel Harrison (1771) ; Thomas LiUy (1772) ;
Charles Townshend (1773) ; Thomas Jones (1775) ; Robert
WilUams (1776) ; John Nicklin (1780) ; Matthew Walsh (1780) ;
WilUam Law (1790) ; Matthew West (1791) ; Robert Breading
(1802) ; and James le Bas (1819). The initials of these makers
will be found on Irish silver of the period.
Cork. — Here there were fine designs of an unusual character
produced. Robert Goble, an early maker, had left a tradition.
There was George Hodder (1745-1770) who made fine coffee
pots and other articles. John WilUams (1780) who produced
sugar baskets finely pierced and chased in classic style, and
there was Jonathan Buck, who was renowned for his magni
ficent repousse and chased work in cream jugs and the Uke,
who signed his pieces sometimes " J. Buck," in script, and
sometimes stamped them with the mark of the buck.

BIRMINGHAM

^mKnram^nv

1804
EDINBURGH

1769 Maker, Patrick Robertson.
GLASGOW

1824
DUBLIN

Maker, Jonathan Buck.

II EXAMPLES OF MARKS
Found on old
Sheffield Plate
during the period
from 1753 to 1840
together with Marks on
French Silver Plated Ware

286 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
The bell, the crossed arrows (three and four), the crossed
keys, the pineapple, the orb, the hand, are all marks used by
Sheffield makers. The following firms aire well known : —
Roberts, Cadman & Co., Goodman & Co., Parsons & Co.,
Wilkinson & Co., WilUams & Co., Dixon and Sons, Holy & Co.,
Gainsford, Walker Knowles & Co., all of Sheffield. At Bir
mingham there was Matthew Boulton, and the Soho Co.,
Hardy and others. In London there were many firms settled
in the Soho district.
The cross keys, Ulustrated, is the mark of H. Wilkinson & Co.
(formerly John Parsons & Co.), Sheffield, though during what
period this was used is not determined. The Orb (that is, the
ball and cross) was the trade mark of Walker Knowles & Co.,
Sheffield, but exactitude in regard to the period of its use is
lacking. The open hand was the sign of Messrs. Watson,
Sheffield, and the crossed arrows of Messrs. Fenton, Creswick
& Co., Sheffield.
The original firm Roberts, Cadman and Co., who commenced
business in 1784, used the BeU as a mark. They also used, as
is illustrated, R.C. & Co. and R.C. & Co. Patent. The latter
mark is stamped on a candlestick made about 1797. In the
same period Roberts, Cadman & Co. produced Coffee Pots
with " Ivory Pine Knob " as advertised in their catalogues of
that date. There were Tinder Boxes at ios. 6d. each with
extinguisher with chain and candlestick on top. The Tea
Urns were priced at twelve guineas " circular or globular shaped."
The Tea Caddies plated inside with silver edges were 45s. each,
and some cups and cream ewers were " gilt inside." They
made also at this date Lamp Holders to fit into candle sockets,
and Taper Holders.
The firm afterwards became Roberts, Smith & Co., then
Smith, Sissons & Co., and were succeeded by W. & G. Sissons,
who are still continuing the business and are silversmiths and
electro-platers. The three crossed arrows mark is interesting. It is claimed
to have been used by Messrs. Fenton, Creswick & Co., Sheffield.
The mark illustrated with four crossed arrows is that of
T. & J. Creswick (181 1). With it is given another crossed
arrow mark of two crossed arrows adopted by the Sheffield
Assay Office to stamp on Foreign silver assayed at that office
in 1904 ; before that only the letter F in an oval was used, but
by 4 Edward VII, Cap. 6 all Assay Offices had to adopt a new
style, and Sheffield selected the crossed arrows. In 1906 the
mark was changed to the one illustrated, which is stiU used on
foreign silver sent to Sheffield for assay and sale in this country.

Mark of Roberts, Cadman & Co., Sheffield (1784).
The firm became Roberts, Smith & Co., then Smith,
Sissons & Co., and is now Messrs. W. & G. Sissons,
who still use the mark.
¦¦(See illustrations from R. C. & Co.'s Pattern Books, pp. 75, 183.)

Marks of Roberts, Cadman & Co.
Found on Candlesticks with silver edges.
Jn 1824 Roberts of Sheffield took out a patent for a new method
of applying silver edges to snuffer trays, cream jugs, sauce
boats, &c. These are found stamped silver : edgd.

Mark of Thomas
& James Creswick,
Sheffield (1811).

Marks on Foreign Silver Plate
assayed at Sheffield.
(1904.) (1906.)

John Parsons & Co. used the Mark of the
Crossed Keys from 1784.
^See Illustrations from Pattern Books, pp. 141, 145, 151, 179, 191.)
The Mark as above is that of H. Wilkinson & Co.,
their successors. 287

MARKS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE 28&
Many fine examples of old Sheffield plate are unmarked.
Where marks are found it is not always possible, except by
inference, to determine at what particular date the makers
stamped such marks, that is at what date the specimen was
made. Obviously the style of decoration indicates approxi
mately the period, as the Sheffield platers set out to offer
ware as fashionable as silver. This is determinable by compari
son with similar examples made by the silversmiths. But
whereas silver plate was accurately dated when it bore the
stamp of the annual date letter, wherever made, Sheffield plated
ware cannot offer this exactitude.
Marks when found are useful as indicating the initials of
old firms who have manufactured plate from the earhest period
and are still in business. But many of the marks were used
over a. long period and only by comparison with silver proto
types can dates be arrived at.
It has been shown (p. 63) that in 1773 when Sheffield
and Birmingham were made Assay' towns that silver plate was
being made there, contemporaneously with plated wares and
presumably by the same firms. The evidence before the
Parliamentary Committee in 1773 showed that Sheffield had
her silver assayed in London, and that Birmingham had also
some of her silver assayed in Chester. It therefore follows that
many examples of silver plate bearing the London and Chester
hall marks were made at Sheffield and at Birmingham — and
in the period from the invention of plated ware at Sheffield
by Boulsover till the year 1773.
One of the weakest points in regard to marks on plated ware
is undoubtedly the absence of real proof as to date. Similar
marks are found covering a period too long for one maker's
working Ufetime. It follows that they represent firms ; often
accompanying these, though not always, are signs also found
through a long period and on various classes of ware, which
are stated to be workmen's marks. In old Worcester china
signs not understood and standing apart from the factory
mark of the crescent or the square Chinese mark are attributed
to workmen. There identity ceases. It is the same, unfor
tunately, with old Sheffield plate. That the Sheffield platers
did attempt to simulate the London marks on silver plate is
only too true. In some examples with a row of marks, a
very colourable imitation of the leopard's head is seen and
the public might well be deceived. But after 1773 this practice
became too dangerous. In fact the penalties were so severe
that makers feared to mark plated goods until the 1784 Act
laid down clearer rules.

290 CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
The mark consisting of four stamps about 1815 in date is
interesting. The casque suggests a head, and the fleur-de-lys
might, when worn, suggest the Sheffield crown on silver plate.
The G has all the appearance of a date letter. Such marks
have a somewhat sinister appearance, as they undoubtedly by
their number and character were attempting to simulate the
hall marks on silver plate.
In regard to Foreign marks on silver plated ware that was
produced in the method of old Sheffield, there are examples
known to have been made in France and in Russia, and it is
believed that they were also made in Holland and in Sweden.
The promulgation of the old Pattern Books by Sheffield at
the end of the eighteenth century doubtless had an influence
on metal workers on the Continent, who were never slow in
assimilating new processes, especially when they offered, as
did Sheffield, a lessened cost of production and an appearance
simulating something finer.
The legal enactments relating to the marking of French
plated ware are referred to on p. 209.
The illustrations of marks found on French silver plated
articles are interesting. The authorities were strict in regard
to an exact definition in the mark to denote to the pubhc the
exact nature of the ware offered for sale. In contradistinction
to the slovenliness of English marking this exhibits the logical
and protective system devised under French laws. The articles
had to be stamped Double (repUca) or Plaque" (plated), and as
is shown in the illustration in no illegible manner. There
was no simulation of the French silver plate marks allowed,
and the quantity of silver was duly stamped 10M or 20M, as
the case might be. The maker, as wiU be seen, had his mark,
but it took a subsidiary place. The pubUc had to be protected
first. In regard to Close Plating, which as a process came about
the beginning of the nineteenth century, and was appUed to
smaller articles where the rolled sheets were not apphcable,
there are a number of marks found on forks and spoons, snuffers
and skewers, on spurs and buckles, dessert knives and forks,
and other articles of a like nature.
Electro-plating was discovered about 1840, and a patent
was taken out by George and Henry Elkington of Birmingham
at that date.
The electro-plated marks are imposing. In worn examples
the row of five stamps is not decipherable. What they were
originaUy it is not easy to say, but they have been designed
to appear more important than they are.

Mark of Matthew Boulton, Soho Plate Works,
Birmingham.

Sham Marks stamped on Sheffield Plated Ware
to simulate the Hall Marks on Silver Plate.
(Found on late Eighteenth-Century Hot Water Jug.)

Imitation Marks stamped on Sheffield Plated Ware
to simulate Hall Marks on Silver Plate.
(Found on Salt Cellars in date about 1815.)

,

-  ;t'v, i
--- TV"-' /

¦
¦

JU.M

Marks on French Silver Plated Ware, PlaquA or
Doubl£, clearly showing that it is Plated,
and not Silver Plate.
The upper mark (Plaque) is on a Tureen about 1816.
The lower mark (Double) is on the Coffee Pot illustrated (p. 211).

291

MARKS ON OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE 293
A great number of marks appear on close plated articles.
Horday & Co., S.G., E.S., S.J. and others. But their identity
is not known. Nor is it very significant. An interesting
mark. Sly. DubUn, is found on a skewer in the early period.
Probably seventy-five per cent, of examples of old Sheffield
plate are unmarked, though they exhibit fine craftsmanship
which any maker might weU have been proud to have stamped
with his initials had the Act of 1773 been framed sufficiently
clear to enable makers to venture stamping, plated ware at
all with safety. Anonymous, therefore, as most of the best
Sheffield plate of the best period is, it bears on the face of it
the haU mark of exquisite workmanship.
CoUectors of old Sheffield plate make a great mistake in
constantly demanding that examples be marked. If this
demand for marks on old Sheffield plate be insisted upon, the
marks will accordingly be supplied. There is nothing to prevent
stamps being made to represent some of the marks found on
old Sheffield plate, and unmarked pieces wUl soon bear marks
and straightway become more saleable. The pubUc by in
cessant clamour drive those responsible for providing for its
wants into devious paths. The dealer in old Sheffield plate
has scores of fine unmarked examples and he is wishful to sell
them as such.
They are undoubtedly old and of fine quality. It should be
the ideal of the coUector to know the technique of his subject
so weU that the artistic beauty and the skilful craftsmanship
of an example should make its appeal to his trained scrutiny
irrespective as to whether there is any maker's mark on the
piece or not. The seams on old pieces showing joins are a
far better test of old workmanship as between old Sheffield
plating and modern electro-plating. These seams are the
hall marks of the makers a century and a century and a half
ago.

12

INDEX

INDEX

Abbotsford, Scott's introduc
tion of gas at, ii 6
Adam design, example of hot
water jug, 228
Adam style of design, the, 85
Addison omits Shakespeare
from Ust of great poets, 51
Advertisement of Pinchbeck
(1732). 54
Allan David, copyist of old
masters, 21
Anonymity of Sheffield plated
ware, 289
Arrows, the crossed, as a mark,
various types of, 286
Artistic value of old Sheffield
plate, 60, 61
Assay offices, examples of
marks used at, 274-282
" Below the salt," its meaning,
136
Birmingham Assay Office, in
stitution of, 41
Birmingham —
haU marks on silver plate,
281
its sUver plated marks
registered at Sheffield, 68
silver platers, rise of, 68
Boulsover, Thomas (1704-
1788), inventor of Sheffield
silver plating, 46
obituary notice of, 47

Boulton, Matthew, Birming
ham (Boulton and Fother-
giU), (M. Boulton and Co.),
68
Buckle makers, the, 262
Buttons made by Thomas
Boulsover, 47, 53
Button makers in DubUn
(1792), 73
Cabinet makers, French,
stamped marks of, 237
Caddies, tea, and their makers,
196
Cadman, Robert, and Co.,
(Sheffield), 89
Cake baskets, Sheffield plated,
165
Candelabra —
and candlesticks, 79-131
old silver, London makers
of, 274
Candelabrum, the —
its varieties, 90
the tri-form, 115
Candlestick —
the chamber, 119
the table, 120
Candlesticks —
early types, 81
from eighteenth century
Pattern Books, 74, 86, 89
old silver, London makers of,
274

297

298

INDEX

Candlesticks (continued) —
Sheffield plated, their price,
269
Carteret's " Drunken Ad
ministration," 48
Centrepiece, the, 245
Centrepieces, old silver, Lon
don makers of, 274
Chair-backs, a test to apply to
their beauty, 109
Chester hall marks on silver
plate, 277
Chester — Liverpool, and Bir
mingham sUversmiths'
work assayed at, 278
China factories, Derby and
Worcester, origin of, 49
Chippendale chair-backs, the
test of their beauty, 109
Christie's, price of Sheffield
plated candlesticks sold
at, 269
Close plating, 261
Coasters (decanter stands), 166
Coffee pots, 206
Coffee pots, old silver, London
makers of, 274
Contemporary silver designs
in Sheffield plated period,
274, 278, 281, 282
Continental trade, Sheffield
platers and, 154
Copyists of old masters, 21
Cream jugs, old silver, London
makers of, 274
Danger of pubUc clamour for
marks, 293
Date of examples, Sheffield
plated, absence of proof
of, 289
Death penalties for tampering
with silver plate, Geo. Ill
(1815), 48
Decanter stands, 166

Decadence in design, in candle
sticks, 126
Design Book, Sheffield Plate,
eighteenth century, 139
Designer, the, his greatest
asset, what to omit, 109
Destruction of old Sheffield
plate, 253
Die work in Sheffield plating,
82
Dies, destruction of old
Sheffield plate, 250
Dinner table, passing of the,
254
Dish rings, Sheffield plated, 177
Drunken habits of eighteenth
century, 189
Duties on silver, eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries,
48
Economic substitution, 22
Electro plating, its invention,
290
Empire style candelabrum, 116
EngUsh craftsmanship, imita
tiveness of, 27
EngUsh porcelain factories,
origin of Derby and Wor
cester, 49
Engraving, not an imitative
art, 28
Engravings, when printed in
colours, imitative art, 28
Epigram by Porson on Pitt, 189
on weight in plate, 202
European imitativeness, 25
Exeter hall marks on silver
plate, 277
Factory system, the, 268
Fashion of buckles, decUne of
the, 263
Foreign poUcy, Carteret's pro
nouncement on his, 48

INDEX

299

Foreign silver plating in
Sheffield style, 290
Fraud by sUversmiths, penal
ties against, 35
French —
marks on silver-plated ware,
290
plating, an early process,
39
plated ware, regulations re
garding, 209
Garrick, David, his revival of
Shakespeare, 50
Gas introduced to Ught Abbots-
ford, 116
George IV and the fashion of
buckles, 263
German silver and other white
metals, 267
Gin bottle covered with bead
work, 26
Glass designs imitate silver,
35
Glass, Venetian, copied in
Germany, 25
Goltzins simulates prints of
old masters, 20
Grease pans, their indication of
date, 99
Guido picture fabricated by
Mignard, 20
Hall marks on old sUver,
illustrated, 275, 279, 283
Hancock, Joseph (Sheffield),
his share in developing
silver plating, 61
Herculaneum —
design from, 116
influence of art of, 116
Hogarth, "the Scottish,"
David AUan, 21
Imitativeness, European, 25

Imitation —
as a fine art, 19
of hall marks by Sheffield
platers, 289, 290
decadence of wood engrav
ing, 41
Imitations of Sheffield plate,
158
Inkstands, 181
Invention of silver plating by
fusion, 45
Ireland, silver plating by fusion
carried on in, 71
Irish dish or potato rings,
177
Irish Government offers pre
mium (1783) for plated
ware made in Ireland, 71
Irish hall marks on silver plate,
281, 282
Irish plated skewer marked
" Sly," 262
Jackson, John, copyist of Rey
nolds, 21
Jugs, hot water, 227
Kettles, tea, 205
Knick-knacks, a world of
(eighteenth century), 54
Knife handle of stamped
Sheffield plate, 50
Lamb, Charles, quoted, 136
Liverpool silversmiths' work
assayed at Chester, 278
Liverseege, Henry, copyist of
Vandyck, 21
London, silver plating carried
on at, 68
Louis XIV—
orders silver plate to be
melted, 23
his extravagant use of silver
plate, 23

300

INDEX

Marks —
on French cabinet work, 237
on porcelain, 232
on Sheffield plate; 62, 63,
231 ; (iUustrated), 286-293
(Sheffield plate) fear of
platers to stamp any, 64,
67
on Sheffield plate resembling
silver marks, 62, 63
on silver, position of, 273
Melting down of old Sheffield
plate, 253
Mignard fabricates a Guido
picture, 20
Missionary-fostered art, 26
Mustard pot, the, 148
Newcastle-upon-Tyne —
haU marks on silver plate,
277
silversmiths at, 278
Nottingham, silver plated ware
made at, 68
Nozzles, removable, their indi
cation of date, 96
Old masters, drawings of,
copied by David Allan,
21
Old masters, prints of, simu
lated by Goltzins, 20
Original silver plate design
copied by platers, 143
Ornament —
spiral, its abuse, 106
useless, failure of, no
Parliamentary Committee on
conduct of assay offices
(1773). 63
Parsons and Co., Pattern Book,
181
Patch boxes, Sheffield plated,
54

Pattern Books, eighteenth
century, silver platers',
74, 86, 89, 139
Penalties —
counterfeiting Duty Mark
(1815) punishable by
death, 48
for fraud in old plate, 36, 62,
63
for wrongly stamping Shef
field plate, 67
Petition of the buckle makers,
the, 264
Pinchbeck, Christopher, and
his imitations, 54
Pipe lighter —
Sheffield plate, 241
iUustrated, 239
Pitt, epigrams by Porson on,
189
Plating, silver —
early, 35
pre-fusion period, 35, 39
process described, 58
used fraudulently, 35
PompeU, influence of art of, 1 16
Poor relations and their
foibles, 136
Porcelain factories, Derby and
Worcester, origin of, 49
Potato rings, Sheffield plated,
177
Potters, copy of silversmiths'
designs by, 28, 31
Pottery, French, supplants
silver plate, 24
Pounce pot, the, and its use,
182
Prince of Wales's feathers used
in design, 153
Process of Sheffield silver
plating described, 58
Rise in value of old Sheffield
plate, 269

INDEX

301

Romney picture of Serena
(Miss Sneyd), 119
Ruskin and copies of Turner
drawings, 22
" Salt, below the," its mean
ing, 136
Salt ceUar, the, 135
the new style, 147
Sauce boats, old silver, London
makers of, 274
Scott, Sir Walter, his intro
duction of gas at Abbots-
ford, 116
Scottish hall marks on silver
plate, 281
Seams a test of genuineness in
Sheffield plate, 293
Sevres porcelain makers'
marks, 232
Shakespeare neglected by
Addison and Steele, 51
revival of study of, 50
Sheffield- Assay Office, institution of,
40, 41
haU marks on silver plate,
277
origin of silver plating at, 39
Sheffield plate —
old, destruction of, 253
wonderful technique of, 161
Sheffield platers —
as to their originaUty, 143
deterred from placing any
marks, 64, 67
Sheffield silver plate, makers
of, eighteenth century, 278
Sheffield, sUver plating process
described, 58
Silver —
duties in eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, 48
price of, in eighteenth
century, 47

Silver (continued) —
lustre ware imitates silver
plate, 35
marks, simulation of, by
marks on Sheffield plate,
62, 63
plate designs copied by
platers, 143
plate made at Sheffield
assayed in London, 63
plate, value of hall marks on,
274
plating at Sheffield, origin
of, 39
plating by fusion, its in
vention, 45
plating, early, 35
plating, the great period, 73
Silversmiths —
copy of potters' designs by,
28, 31
Ust of late eighteenth
century, 77
(London) who influenced
Sheffield platers, 274
Simulation in art, 25, 28
Smith, J. R., engraving of
Serena after Romney, 119
Spiral forms in candelabra,
100
Spectator, advertisement in
(1712), 140
Spurious candelabra and their
errors, 95
Steele, Richard, omits Shake
speare from Ust of great
poets, 51
Steel toys, the, of Sheffield, 140
Sugar basin, the, 210
basins, old silver, London
makers of, 274
Supper table, the, 238
Taper holders, 181
Tea and coffee sets, 201

302

INDEX

Tea caddies and their makers,
196
Tea kettles, 205
Teapots, 189
old silver, London makers of,
274
Tea urn, the, 202
Techinque, wonderful, of Shef
field plate, 161
Tinder boxes, Sheffield plated,
286
Toasted cheese dishes, old
silver, London makers of,
274
Trencher salts, their use, 147
Tureens —
old silver, London makers of,
274
SOUp, 220
Turner drawings, facsimiles of,
22
Tutenag, an alloy of antimony
and zinc, 267
Urn, the tea, 202

UtiUty the true test of orna
ment, no
Value of old Sheffield plate,
269
Ward, his repUcas of Turner
drawings, 22
Wedgwood, Josiah —
shell-forms, adoption of, 31
carved wood models, useof,3i
indebted to metal-workers
of Sheffield, 32
White metals, German sUver,
etc., 267
Wine coolers, old sUver, Lon
don makers of, 274
Wine labels, Sheffield plated,
53
Wood engraving, decadence of,
41
Worcester china, workmen's
marks on, 289
York, silversmiths at, 278

Printed in Great Britain by
UNWIN BROTHERS, UMrTED, THE GRESHAM PHESS, WOKING AND LONDON

'SITY LIBRARY

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