Standing Dish
1652-1653 (hallmarked)
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| Place of origin |
The complex pierced and chased decoration of this dish, comparative to Portuguese silver decoration of the period, demonstrates the influences of Portuguese silversmiths on English makers.
Outside the wealthiest court circles, 17th-century silver was used primarily for eating and drinking. The dining table was the heart of social activity, and novelty items were made for fashionable new drinks flavoured with spices and drinking games. The range of British silver for the home from this period (the first for which a representative quantity survives) demonstrates increasing foreign influences from France, the Netherlands and Portugal. The rising demand for fashionably decorated European silver from the 1660s onwards reflects Britain's new wealth and political stability.
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.
Outside the wealthiest court circles, 17th-century silver was used primarily for eating and drinking. The dining table was the heart of social activity, and novelty items were made for fashionable new drinks flavoured with spices and drinking games. The range of British silver for the home from this period (the first for which a representative quantity survives) demonstrates increasing foreign influences from France, the Netherlands and Portugal. The rising demand for fashionably decorated European silver from the 1660s onwards reflects Britain's new wealth and political stability.
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.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Raised, pierced and flat chased silver |
| Brief description | Silver standing dish; London, 1652-53 |
| Physical description | The spreading central foot of the dish is stamped around the border with a band of egg-and-dart ornament; above is pierced and flat-chased fluting. The pierced circular dish is embossed with a broad band of cherubs, scrolls, strapwork, and foliage around a central escutcheon, which was engraved in the mid- and late eighteenth century with two sets of initials, FMC and JP, respectively. The rim of the dish is a band of embossed and pierced foliage. |
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| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London |
| Object history | Stylistically, this standing dish is somewhat 'retardataire'; the three closest examples are hallmarked for 1616, 1617, and 1619 (Cambridge 1975, p. 36, cat S1; Clayton, 1985A, nos. 221, 225). The pierced and chased decoration of this dish clearly demonstrates the influence of Portuguese silver on English seventeenth century goldsmiths, as can be shown by a comparison of the dish with two Portuguese bowls illustrated by Oman and Rosas (1950, p. 162, fig. II). Although this dish could well have been made in 1652-53 to match an earlier example, the appearance of stamped egg-and-dart ornament around the foot raises the possibilty that it was made around 1620 and only submitted for assay when offered for sale about thirty years later. (Schroder, 1988, p. 96) Provenance: Sale, Sotheby's, lot 374, 24 October 1985. Purchased from Armitage, Ltd., London, 1986. |
| Production | Maker's mark possibly IF |
| Summary | The complex pierced and chased decoration of this dish, comparative to Portuguese silver decoration of the period, demonstrates the influences of Portuguese silversmiths on English makers. Outside the wealthiest court circles, 17th-century silver was used primarily for eating and drinking. The dining table was the heart of social activity, and novelty items were made for fashionable new drinks flavoured with spices and drinking games. The range of British silver for the home from this period (the first for which a representative quantity survives) demonstrates increasing foreign influences from France, the Netherlands and Portugal. The rising demand for fashionably decorated European silver from the 1660s onwards reflects Britain's new wealth and political stability. 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. |
| Bibliographic reference | Schroder, Timothy. The Gilbert collection of gold and silver. Los Angeles (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) 1988, cat. no. 20, pp. 96-100. ISBN.0875871445 |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | LOAN:GILBERT.536-2008 |
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| Record created | June 18, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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