Not currently on display at the V&A

Kettle

ca.1896 (designed and made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Voysey stands out on several counts from most of his fellow architect-designers who joined the Art Workers’ Guild and contributed metalwork to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. Instead of setting up his own workshop, he continued the traditional practice of handing over his designs to a trustworthy firm for execution. This encouraged him to ignore the repertory of ornamental techniques used by many metalworkers attached to the Arts and Crafts movement who habitually embellished their productions enamels and semi-precious stones. Of Voysey’s major contemporaries, only W.A.S. Benson favoured a similar simplicity of form and decoration, and Benson, significantly had his own factory in Hammersmith which was filled with the latest machinery. Unlike Benson, however, who increasingly devoted his energies to his metalwork to the exclusion of architecture, Voysey did not design a great deal either for precious or base metals, and when he did so it was usually with his architectural schemes in mind. Some of his finest and most characteristic designs for metalwork are the hinges fitted to furniture and doors.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 5 parts.

  • Kettle
  • Kettle Lid
  • Stand
  • Plate for Oil Reservoir
  • Oil Reservoir
Materials and techniques
Brass, raised and formed, the interior, tinned. Ivory insulators
Brief description
Kettle, stand and burner, brass, London, ca.1896, made by Thomas Elsley & Co, designed by C.F.A. Voysey.
Physical description
The kettle, brass, has a rounded, ovoid body with a flat base; separate dome cover with ovoid finial on a stem, S-shaped spout and curbing handle forged from an open strip of metal, U-shaped in section, bolted through two ivory insulators, tinned inside. The stand is supported by four scrolling brackets; the burner rests in a dished, circular base plate.
Dimensions
  • Height: 26cm (Overall)
  • Width: 23cm (maximum)
  • Depth: 18cm
Style
Production typesmall batch
Credit line
Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by H M Government and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014
Object history
The construction of the stand, with its four brackets, is related to the base of a lamp illustrated in Dekorative Kunst, 1, 1897, p.259, while the construction of the handle is virtually the same as that of the teapot in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, (Circ.478&a,-1954) and a hot-wtaer jug executed by Bainbridge Reynolds and illustrated in Kunst und Kunsthandwerk, VI, 1903, p.96.
Subject depicted
Summary
Voysey stands out on several counts from most of his fellow architect-designers who joined the Art Workers’ Guild and contributed metalwork to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. Instead of setting up his own workshop, he continued the traditional practice of handing over his designs to a trustworthy firm for execution. This encouraged him to ignore the repertory of ornamental techniques used by many metalworkers attached to the Arts and Crafts movement who habitually embellished their productions enamels and semi-precious stones. Of Voysey’s major contemporaries, only W.A.S. Benson favoured a similar simplicity of form and decoration, and Benson, significantly had his own factory in Hammersmith which was filled with the latest machinery. Unlike Benson, however, who increasingly devoted his energies to his metalwork to the exclusion of architecture, Voysey did not design a great deal either for precious or base metals, and when he did so it was usually with his architectural schemes in mind. Some of his finest and most characteristic designs for metalwork are the hinges fitted to furniture and doors.
Bibliographic reference
John Brandon-Jones, ed. C.F.A. Voysey: architect and designer 1857-1941, London, Lund Humphries in association with Art Gallery and Museums and the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, 1978, cat. no. E4, p.134.
Collection
Accession number
M.69:1 to 5-2014

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Record createdJanuary 24, 2013
Record URL
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