Silver presentation tray with a gold and diamond jewel set below a square of polished rock crystal. Designed and made by Louis Osman, London, 1965.

Silver presentation tray with a gold and diamond jewel set below a square of polished rock crystal.

Given by Mrs Phillida Shaw and Mrs Linda Morley

Louis Osman was at the peak of his career when he was commissioned to produce a suitable testimonial for presentation to L G Northcroft, the retiring chairman of the Cheltenham-based engineering firm, Spirax-Sarco. Osman regarded the jewelled brooch as being the focal point from which everything else in the design originated. From this point the shape of the bowl evolves, spreading outwards in ever increasing eccentric sweeps. The jewelled brooch normally sits on a velvet cushion beneath a rock crystal lens which is raised or lowered by a detachable key operating a worm gear mechanism. The design uses a modernist abstract language to symbolize the world-wide sweep of the company which Northcroft had done so much to establish and expand.

Louis Osman designed this brooch to serve as the focal point for a beaten silver centrepiece. When not being worn, it rests here beneath a square of polished rock crystal. The centrepiece was commissioned as a testimonial for presentation to L. G. Northcroft, the retiring chairman of the Cheltenham-based engineering firm Spirax-Sarco. The gold is extremely pure, which gives it a softness exploited in the crumpled texture of the metal. This was a very fashionable surface treatment in the mid-1960s.

Louis Osman, (1914-1996) was one of the major English silversmiths of the immediate post-war generation. In 1969 he designed and made the coronet worn by Prince Charles at his investiture as Prince of Wales.

M.40:1 to 5-1994