Sterling silver and corian, USA, Montclair, New Jersey, 2002, designed and made by Terri Gelenian-Wood

The blade consists of two overlapping flat navette shapes; the under one is largely occluded by the upper. They are alternately bright scratched finished and polished on each side, with opposite reference. These flat shapes are sweat soldered together and rivetted over and under to each of two parallel square polished bars that are set apart, and 7 mm on a side. They constitute, continuously, the boss, stem and handle. The handle portion carries four smaller navette shaped bezels into which are set light grey, blue, green and black corian slabs. The lowest one (closest to the blade) is set (rivetted) vertically between the bars; the two next are rivetted to the top of the bars, while the topmost one is rivetted under the bars. The corian slabs are partially covered on both sides by diverse designs of bright scratched covering strips of silver which are rivetted through to the bars.

Given by the American Friends of the V&A through the generosity of Professor B. Seymour Rabinovitch

Historical significance: The artist's love of colour is expressed through her beautiful enamel work, "the velvety glass surface seems limitless in its possibilities for re-creating nature's palette". She is inspired by "places and people, gardens, wooded paths, the dense foliage of the Florida and North Carolina landscapes." Her love of silver stems from its elegance and its inherent value, the perfect medium in which to express the splendour of nature. She delights in the possibilities of "adding beauty to everyday rituals" in this case the serving of fish.

Part of a collection of fish slices commissioned by Professor Rabinovitch from contemporary North American and British makers.

The striking three-dimensional aspect of this piece is cleverly created using 2-D silver sheets. The abstracted fish form is created with a raised "fin piece" on the blade and a "tail piece" attached on the underside of the handle with threaded rods and rivets. The brilliant hues of the enamel work form a magnificent display of artistry and technical skill. Techniques of baisse taille, depletion gilding and champlevé (transparent enamel) were used to create a fantastically vibrant and luminescent design of blues and greens. The scale patterning of the blade is exaggerated on the handle unifying the two portions. The roughly chased texture of the fin piece beautifully offsets the smooth enamel of the blade and handle. Overall the elegance of form and the splendour of the enamel design create a beautifully rich piece.

M.104-2008