Description:
Fused or Sheffield silver plate and cut glass epergne with one large lead glass bowl on the top of the center base and four arms, each with a small glass bowl. This epergne is similar to other erpergnes made by Matthew Bolton (1728-1809) of Birmingham. Sheffield silver plate came into being in 1742 when a silversmith found that clean, smooth, blocks of copper and silver would bond when he pressed them together. He sandwiched copper between two silver slabs -- then ran them through rollers, over and over resulting in a silver outside a strong copper core. In 1762, Matthew Boulton set up a factory in Birmingham, England, where he made silver-plated objects with the Sheffield process and became the first really large producer of Sheffield plate. When silversmiths raised legal objections to stamping hallmarks on Sheffield plate, Bolton and other local silversmiths campaigned to establish a local assay office which would measure the silver content in individual products and issue hallmarks to guarantee quality standards. In 1773, an Act of Parliament was passed to create Birmingham Assay Office. The hallmarking system provided a date and identity marks for silver products manufactured in and near the town. Birmingham became one of the most important centres for British silver manufacturing. Bolton produced epergnes in both sterling silver and old Sheffield plate, which usually combine silver or silverplate with glass, and are in the later, more architectural version of the neoclassical style. This epergne has a center stand with four legs with reeded uprights, leaf decoration surmounted by double scroll supporting a circular frame decorated with applied cast gadrooning and foliated border, and terminating in paw feet. The stretcher supports an idealized flower with flame finial and has a border with gadrooning and shell decoration; the four branches supporting the smaller bowls have naturalistic reed and foliage decoration. The large center bowl and four smaller bowls are made of cut lead glass decorated with diamond patterns interrupted by teardrops, and have serrated edges and a sunburst pattern is on the base. Martin Mortimer of Delomosne and Son believed that the central bowl was a replacement and the smaller bowls were original to the epergne. The epergne consists of epergne parts, including a central base on four legs and four detached arms. The parts, which are made of cast and/or stamped silver-plated copper (fused plate or Sheffield plate), also include circular holders for bowls or dishes - a large central one on the base and four smaller ones on the arms; the arms attach to the central base section by means of rectilinear pegs which fit into slots in the base. Previous repair is evident on three of the four legs and on two of the arms. There are additional drips of solder on three of the four arms; there is excessive wear and loss of silver plating in the areas associated with the repairs but also more generally on the edges and raised areas of the design; and there is a long crack in the large cut glass bowl in the center
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+76.024 |
