Electrotype of a relief-cast pewter dish, the original of around 1580, the electrotype from 1856, Giovanni Franchi and Son, Clerkenwell, London.

Electrotype dish of silver-plated copper, a replica of a pewter dish with concentric bands of cast relief work against a ground that is entirely matted. The outer rim is decorated with scenes from the parable of the Prodigal Son. The inner bands of decoration consist of half-figures of women with stags and fruit, symbols of plenty, and masks framed in tightly curled strapwork.

The central enamelled boss of the original has been replaced with an electrotype copy of the central medallion from the Temperantia Basin, modelled by the French medallist and die-cutter, Francois Briot (Museum no. 2063-1855).

This dish was bought by the Museum in 1856 from Messrs Franchi and Son of Clerkenwell, London for £3. It is a copy of a relief-cast pewter dish depicting the story of the Prodigal Son, probably made in France in around 1580, which is also owned by this Museum (Museum No. 2064-1855). The central boss of the original is a Limoges enamel medallion but on the electrotype this has been replaced with an electrotype copy of the central medallion from another pewter dish in the collection, the famous Temperantia Basin, modelled by the French medallist and die-cutter, Francois Briot (Museum no. 2063-1855).

Curiously both the original Museum register (1856) and the subsequent publication, Illustrated Catalogue of Electrotype Reproductions of Works of Art from Originals in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1873), describe this dish wrongly as an electrotype of a pewter dish by Caspar Enderlein (Museum no. 5477-1859). As the electrotype was made in 1856, three years before the Museum acquired the original, this is extremely unlikely.

The original Enderlein dish to which the register refers (Museum no. 5477-1859), is a mid-seventeenth-century casting from an Enderlein mould dated 1611. Enderlein's mould was in itself based closely on Briot's moulds for similar dishes. Both Briot and Enderlein signed their initials at the bottom left of the box on which Temperantia sits in the central medallion. The initials were signed in the mould meaning they appear raised on the casting. The medallion on this electrotype dish bears the FB signature of Briot discounting any connection with the Enderlein dish.

Electrotype copies were used as design aids for students in the government schools of design under the aegis of the Department of Science and Art. They were also sold to the commercial market. Franchi and Son sold this electrotype in a variety of finishes to suit differing tastes and budgets: copper bronzed for £2, silvered and oxidised (to look like the original in pewter) for £3 and gilt for £6.

Historical significance: As an electrotype this dish is an example of a 19th-century design model. Electrotypes play a key role in helping us to understand the V&A in its earliest days.

The V&A grew largely out of the Great Exhibition in 1851 and, under the guidance of Henry Cole, sought to arrest the perceived decline in British design. The Museum aimed, initially, to collect ‘modern manufactures’ for the education of manufacturers, designers and the public. Cole was also in charge of the Government Schools of Design, which he set about reforming. Cole passionately believed in the potential of both museums and the schools of design, to raise standards of taste.

The appointment of John Charles Robinson as curator of the Museum in 1853 heralded a change in focus. Robinson persuaded Cole that historic works of art were as instructive as contemporary work. For Cole and Robinson, if historic works of art could not be acquired, copies were the next best option.

The Museum bought electrotypes as part of its growing collection of reproductions. This collection enabled students to look closely at both modern and historic objects that were otherwise inaccessible. Electrotypes provided the same function as the Museum’s collection of plaster casts.

Electrotypes are also relics of 19th-century industrialisation and mass production. The process of electroplating and electrotyping favoured companies that could afford large factories and expensive technology. The power of the machinery and new technology now at the disposal of the silver industry allowed modern mass production to develop. Electroplaters could create thousands of identical objects using a fraction of the amount of silver to create “a degree of mechanical finish it would be difficult to surpass” (Art Union, 1846). The focus of silver and silver product manufacture moved from London to the new factories of Birmingham and Sheffield.

Some smaller companies trying to keep pace with industrial change suffered. The large vats of potassium cyanide required spacious, well-ventilated factories. A report at the Great Exhibition claimed workers in smaller companies suffered blistered skin, headaches temporary blindness and nausea.

This dish is an electrotype, an exact copy in metal of another object. Electrotypes were a by-product of the invention of electroplating (silver plating by electrolysis).

ELECTROPLATING: Electricity revolutionised the trade of coating base metal objects with silver. Patented by Elkington and Company in the 1840s, this technique was the fulfilment of a century of research into the effects of electricity on metals. A negatively charged silver bar, suspended in a vat of potassium cyanide, deposited a coating of silver on a positively charged base metal (mostly copper, later nickel-silver) object immersed with it. Electroplated objects were fully formed in base metal before plating.

ELECTROGILDING exploited the same technique but used gold bars instead of silver. It was safer than traditional mercury gilding.

ELECTROFORMING transferred the metal deposits directly into the moulds in the plating vats. When enough metal had been deposited to create a self-supporting object the mould was removed. Developed by Alexander Parkes, electroforms so accurately mirrored the moulds in which they were created that multiple copies could be created (ELECTROTYPES).

During the electrotyping process a mould was taken of the original object. In this mould a copper type pattern was electroformed. From this type pattern subsequent moulds were created in which electrotypes were formed. This dish was therefore electroformed in copper from moulds made from a type pattern which itself was electroformed in a mould of the original. The copper electrotype was then electrogilded.

Early experiments in electroplating, often by amateur scientists using Elkington’s home electroplating kits, involved coating fruit, flowers and animals in silver or gold “with the most perfect accuracy”. They “retained all the characteristics of the specimens before their immersion” (Penny Magazine, 1844). The Art Journal enthused in same year, “The electrotypes are perfect; the finest lines, the most minute dots are as faithfully copied as the boldest objections”

Henry Cole, the first director of the South Kensington Museum (V&A), quickly grasped the educational potential of this new technique. He employed Elkington’s and Franchi & Son of Clerkenwell to take moulds of historic and modern objects in the Museum (at their own risk), create copies in a base metal and then electroplate them. These could be sold freely as reproductions, with a gold, silver or bronze finish, provided they bore the South Kensington Museum’s official stamp. To avoid breaking English hallmarking laws, all marks were to be deleted from copies of silver objects. Copies were made of successful modern objects as well as historic works of art

Elkington’s display of electrotypes at the 1867 Paris Exhibition proved extremely popular and prompted Cole to organise a convention at which 14 European countries agreed to exchange works of art. Representatives of Elkington’s and the V&A sent staff to Germany, Sweden, France, Denmark and Hungary. The most ambitious trip, to Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1880, secured copies of over 200 items from the Kremlin and the Hermitage, including the celebrated Jerningham Wine Cooler and much Elizabethan and Stuart silver sent as ambassadorial gifts to the Tsars. By 1920 the V&A held over 2000 electrotypes. Copies toured the country as part of the museum’s educational programmes and were sold to the public and to museums and art schools.

A 19th-century copy of a mid-late 16th-century pewter dish

Attribution note: electrotype

This dish was bought by the Museum in 1856 from Messrs Franchi and Son of Clerkenwell, London for £3. It is a copy of a relief-cast pewter dish depicting the story of the Prodigal Son, probably made in France in around 1580, which is also owned by this Museum (Museum No. 2064-1855). The central boss of the original is a Limoges enamel medallion but on the electrotype this has been replaced with an electrotype copy of the central medallion from another pewter dish in the collection, the famous Temperantia Basin, modelled by the French medallist and die-cutter, Francois Briot (Museum no. 2063-1855).

Curiously both the original Museum register (1856) and the subsequent publication, Illustrated Catalogue of Electrotype Reproductions of Works of Art from Originals in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1873), describe this dish wrongly as an electrotype of a pewter dish by Caspar Enderlein (Museum no. 5477-1859). As the electrotype was made in 1856, three years before the Museum acquired the original, this is extremely unlikely.

Electrotype copies were used as design aids for students in the government schools of design under the aegis of the Department of Science and Art. They were also sold to the commercial market. Franchi and Son sold this electrotype in a variety of finishes to suit differing tastes and budgets: copper bronzed for £2, silvered and oxidised (like this one, to look like the original in pewter) for £3 and gilt for £6.

REPRO.1856A-1