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 _pièce de résistance_; 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
monument 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with lights when the old candelabra were considered to be out of
date, and before the modern electric candelabrum made its appearance.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 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
noticeable 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 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 æsthetic 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.
[Illustration: OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CENTREPIECES.
With finely-cut glass dish in centre, and five branches supporting
smaller glass dishes. Elaborate scroll ornament embodying the Prince of
Wales's feathers as central support. Date 1810.
Oval wire basket, with double wire handles on standard. Four smaller
circular baskets supported from C-shaped branches. 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._)]
The Centrepiece illustrated (p. 247) offers many points of
attractiveness. It attempts magnificence 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 decoration 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 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
conclusive 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.
[Illustration: OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CENTREPIECE.
Hexagonal base on scroll feet. Urn-shaped wire basket, supported by
three semi-nude female figures, surmounted by large circular cut-glass
bowl.
(_In the collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq._)]
=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.
But undoubtedly the destruction of old dies by a number of firms did
lead to the constant production 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 represented 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 overtook 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 dealing in metals began to collect all the old Sheffield plated
examples they could lay hands on, and they ruthlessly melted them
down. Quite considerable sums of money were made in this manner, and
very few fine pieces were rescued from destruction. Though we heard of
one instance of a dealer 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 silversmiths.
Now and again great surprise is expressed 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.
[Illustration: 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._)]
[Illustration: OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED FRUIT BASKET.
In fluted oval base, with four scroll feet. Wire work design; broad
gadrooned rim. Date 1810.
(_By courtesy of Walter H. Willson, Esq._)]
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 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 personally supervised his cellars and knew the
temperature 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 particular 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