Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level D , Case 94, Shelf G, Box 43

Metalwork Design

1820
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

A drawing of a silver centrepiece by Edward Hodges Baily, circa 1820.
Around the stem are figures of a baccante, a faun and a boy with pan pipe. An acanthus stem supports a wicker basket. On the base vine stems and a blank shield.
Profile, Full size, 479 x 308 mm.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Pencil, pen and ink on wove paper. The sheet is watermarked 1806.
Brief description
Design for a silver centrepiece by Edward Hodges Baily (1788- 1867) c. 1820
Physical description
A drawing of a silver centrepiece by Edward Hodges Baily, circa 1820.
Around the stem are figures of a baccante, a faun and a boy with pan pipe. An acanthus stem supports a wicker basket. On the base vine stems and a blank shield.
Profile, Full size, 479 x 308 mm.
Dimensions
  • Height: 510mm
  • Width: 314mm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
Inscribed in pencil " No.1"
Gallery label
Object history
This design, excluding the basket at the top, forms the lower part of a centerpiece in the Grand Service of the Royal Collection (RCIN 51981). This lower part was marked by Paul Storr and hallmarked 1812-13. In 1821-22 it was altered to become part of the Grand Service with a set of candle branches terminating in convulses flowers. This drawing probably represents the centerpiece before alterations. For a design relating to the candle branches see E.82-1964.

This design is on folio 7 recto included in an album containing 55 designs drawn directly on 27 sheets (sometimes several to a page), for gold and silver plate, including wine-coolers, tureens, inkstands, a teapot, a kettle, candelabra etc., related to the production of the Royal goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge and Rundell between c.1809 and c.1820. (E.70- 124-1964) The album pages are of white wove paper watermarked 1806, full-bound in blue leather, gold tooled, lettered on the spine ‘Designs for Plate etc. by John Flaxman’. With the bookplate of John Roland Abbey (1894 –1969). Bound by William Wood. The back fly- leaf is inscribed “JA, 1070/ 13:9:1935”. All the drawings are by one hand, most probably that of the sculptor Edward Hodges Baily. He became a pupil of John Flaxman in 1807, at a time when Flaxman was designing silver for Rundell, Bridge and Rundell. He joined Rundell Bridge and Rundell in 1815 as “a modeller and designer” and in 1826 became its chief modeller and designer. In 1833 he began working for the firm of Storr and Mortimer. Some of the drawings are most probably copies by Baily of his own designs, while others are copied or adapted from designs by John Flaxman and Thomas Stothard, as well as other, anonymous, designers. The clean condition of the album, and the range of dates of the pieces shown, in addition to their unchronological arrangement, suggest that the album was made as a fair-copy record of pre-existing design drawings, all made about 1820, although some of the drawings seem also have been used as part of a design process. The drawings copied from John Flaxman and Thomas Stothard imitate the graphic styles of the originals. The album was bought from Marlborough Rare Books on 24th March 1964 for 550 pounds.
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic reference
Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1964. London: HMSO, 1965. C. Oman, "A Problem of Artistic Responsibility: The Firm of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, Apollo Magazine, March 1966, p.174- 183. Bury, S. (1966) "The lengthening shadow of Rundell's", Connoisseur Magazine CLXI, no.648, p.79; no.649, p.152; no.650, p.218.
Collection
Accession number
E.83-1964

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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