Server
2001 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This useful server gives evidence of the artist's relaxed control of her medium. The article insists on its connection with the natural world, with both its beauty and its defects. The flowing, asymmetric trowel blade connects to the irregular handle and gives reference to earthly matters. A concept of leaf and twig appears without appeal to any explicit reference. This article's very informality carries a message: sit back, contemplate and enjoy.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Silver, set with labradorite and lapis lazuli, engraved |
| Brief description | Silver, Canada, Guelph, Ontario, 2001, designed and made by Lois Etherington Betteridge |
| Physical description | The blade is a slightly asymmetric highly pointed trowel whose left and rear edges are scalloped and the right rear edge waved. The boss is an oblate hollow spheroid place off centre near the rear edge. The tapering tubular handle attaches to the boss, left of the centre line, and then bends a little to the right. The boss is the origin of a number of chased, closed C scrolls which sweep along the blade and terminate in the scallops of the left and the rear edges. The C scroll areas are themselves decorated along their length with very short parallel and longitudinal line indents. The handle is curvaceously irregular, of the nature of a rough branch. It is decorated with several small flat granulated irregularities, a small round flat lapis lazuli stone and carries a short "broken" rod like projection near the finial. The latter is capped by a rounded, roughly bezelled, labradorite stone. |
| Dimensions |
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| Gallery label | This collection of silver slices, all commissioned over a period of twenty years by Professor Benton Seymour Rabinovitch FRS, is proof of the skill and diversity of contemporary silversmiths. Each artist craftsman has responded to the familiar functional form of the slice in an individual way, producing an astonishingly diverse range of interpretations. Each piece becomes an enchanting, decorative work of art. Professor Rabinovitch established a close rapport with each artist, always encouraging a freedom of creative expression. The response of these silversmiths has been not only to be strikingly imaginative but also to honour him by giving him their best work.
This collection is testimony to the significant contribution that one individual can make to supporting the craft of silversmithing. After commissioning work from some of the most illustrious names in British and North American silversmithing, Professor Rabinovitch has very generously donated his entire collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum, through the American Friends of the V&A.(2005) |
| Credit line | Given by the American Friends of the V&A through the generosity of Professor B. Seymour Rabinovitch |
| Historical context | Part of a collection of fish slices commissioned by Professor Rabinovitch from contemporary North American and British makers. |
| Summary | This useful server gives evidence of the artist's relaxed control of her medium. The article insists on its connection with the natural world, with both its beauty and its defects. The flowing, asymmetric trowel blade connects to the irregular handle and gives reference to earthly matters. A concept of leaf and twig appears without appeal to any explicit reference. This article's very informality carries a message: sit back, contemplate and enjoy. |
| Bibliographic reference | Benton Seymour Rabinovitch, Contemporary Silver, Part II Recent Commissions, Seattle, RAB Associates, 2005, pp.76-7. ill. |
| Other number | LOAN:AMERICANFRIENDS.156-2005 - previous loan number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | M.129-2008 |
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| Record created | May 13, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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