Silver, translucent & opaque enamels set with semi-precious stones, no marks, London, 1897, designed by Sir George Frampton and made by Alexander Fisher.

The bowl is supported on a lobed stem which terminates in a circular foot with a raised rim and chased lettering BUT NOW WE DOE USE IT and a ridged strip, engraved, serving as a strike plate for matches. The stem set with semi-precious cabochon stones in individual collars; the bowl, lobed, has six enamel panels in the upper half, supported by small scrolls of wire. The upper rim circular and is part of a circular box which fits inside the bowl and serves to contain cigarettes.

Label says: cigarettes placed on container - matches were to be struck along grid on the foot where lobed wells were to serve as an ashtray
Alexander Fisher was goldsmith, painter and sculptor. A graduate of the South Kensington School of Design, he went to Paris in 1884 to study the technique of enamelling. He set up his own workshop on his return and quickly gained a reputation for his enamelwork. In 1896, he was in charge of the enamelling class at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1904, he set up his own school in Kensington.

EDWARDIAN SILVER

Despite relentless commercial pressures and a conservative public which favoured historicist revivals, innovations did emerge in European silverware in the early years of the 20th century, prior to the First World War. The cup and cover (1909-10) by Child & Child of Thurloe Place, South Kensington, in a revived, German Renaissance manner illustrates the prevailing mainstream taste for historicism while the Painter and Stainers’ Cup designed by C.R. Ashbee for Harris Heal (1900-01) is a very contemporary and subtle restatement of a 17th century design and epitomises the essence of the British Arts and Crafts movement.

By 1900, Ashbee and his Guild of Handicraft had a achieved a stylistic maturity. For a while the Guild even showed a modest profit but events were moving swiftly. In the 1890s the work produced by the Guild struck a fresh and original note. By the 1900s, Ashbee was to witness others adapting his ideas and extending them further. The workshops of Henry Wilson, Nelson Dawson and Edward Spencer of the Artificer’s Guild, Omar Ramsden and in Denmark, Michelsen and Georg Jensen began to produce work that was richer and more self assured than the austere, products of the Guild of Handicraft. These firms successfully popularised the Arts and Crafts philosophy and occasionally incorporated Art Nouveau tendencies. The retailer A.L. Liberty of Regent Street with his Cymric range of silver and jewellery was the amongst the most successful and all remained commercially viable long after the demise of the Guild in 1908.

(Graphic panel: the Silver Galleries)

Dated 1897

This luxurious silver cigarette box with its decoration of enamels and semi-precious stones would have held loose cigarettes. Sir George Frampton (1860-1928), who designed it, initially studied architecture, stone- and woodcarving and later sculpture at the Royal Academy schools in London, between 1881 and 1887. In 1887 he was awarded a gold medal and a travelling scholarship. In 1888 he worked in Paris and shortly after his return took up metalwork and produced a number of important presentation pieces.

Alexander Fisher (1864-1936), who made the box, was a goldsmith, painter and sculptor. A graduate of the South Kensington School of Design, he went to Paris in 1884 to study the technique of enamelling. He set up his own workshop on his return and quickly gained a reputation for his enamelwork. In 1896, he was in charge of the enamelling class at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. He made this box the following year.

M.21-1981