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 craftsman 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. The perfection of applied veneer and the exquisite skill employed by the cabinet-maker in covering oak with fine figured mahogany is unsurpassed. 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 the tyro but beloved by the connoisseur, converted copper and silver, with its too obvious copper edge into solid plate to all appearance. It duplicated 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.

(_At the Sheffield Public Museum._)

(_Reproduced by permission of the Corporation of Sheffield._)]

With circular base: having wire body surmounted by a broad lip heavily decorated with floral ornament: massive handle with hinges. Date 1810. Diameter 9½ in. Base 4 in.

(_At the Sheffield Public Museum._)

(_Reproduced by permission of the Corporation of Sheffield._)]

=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 exquisite 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 technique 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 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. Lightness 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 bead-work, or in some examples they had four handles reminiscent of decorative ornament of an earlier period.

[Illustrations: 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 collection of B. B. Harrison, Esq._)]

The four examples illustrated (p. 167) illustrate types which were being made from 1785 to 1790. They are all from pairs, and each exhibits representative 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 corresponding with its geometric form, and has straight thread edges.

[Illustrations: OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED COASTERS.

With broad beaded pattern: having turned wooden bottom with silver boss in centre. Date 1810. Diameter 5⅞ in.

Vertically fluted: with moulded border of scroll design. Turned wooden bottom with plated boss in centre. Date 1815. Diameter 6⅛ in.

(_At the Sheffield Public Museum._)

(_By permission of the Corporation of Sheffield._)]

At the opening of the nineteenth century new forms came into vogue, the pair of Coasters illustrated (p. 169) are of an unusual design where four scrolls ornament the rims. These scrolls have the suggestion of French First Empire decorative work found in domestic ornament and embodying bronze work sphinxes, griffons and other bold designs adapted reminiscent of Herculaneum. 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 vertically 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 ornaments were added to articles that could not stand such meaningless exuberances and carefully executed details which choked all natural simplicity of line.

Restlessness of invention seized the Sheffield and other platers. Old forms were discarded, not 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 silversmiths 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 surface of the mahogany table. They are also believed to have supported wooden bowls containing 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 Calderwood. 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