Small square entrée dish. Norfolk dinner service, silver, Paul Storr, 1816-1817.

The dish has gadrooned borders chased at intervals with shells and flowers and flat-chased within a band of scrolling foliage, trelliswork, and scales. The domed covers of these dishes are decorated in relief with flowers, trelliswork, scrolls, and shells on matted ground; they have a coat of arms applied on both sides and a molded band of rosettes and foliage above a plain oval rim. The plated stand rests on four foliage bracket feet. The lower section is decorated with a band of stamped acanthus foliage and palmettes; the upper part is plain and pierced with a band of alternating oblongs and six-pointed stars. The handles are reeded and chased with foliage. Each stand has a plain, detachable, plate-like support for its dish and encloses a spirit burner.

The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Provenance: Bernard Edward Howard, twelfth Duke of Norfolk (complete service) Lillian and Morrie A. Morris, Memphis, Tennessee. Purchased from David Orgell, Inc., Beverly Hills, 1976.

Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.

LOAN:GILBERT.795:1-2008