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Sugar bowl and sifter spoon
Silversmiths:
Hukin & Heath
Silversmith:
Heath, John Thomas
Middleton, John Hartshorne
Designer:
Dresser, Christopher
(Perhaps)
Silver, parcel-gilt, chased, engraved; the bowl and the sugar sifter spoon in the form of a lotus flower
Silver, parcel-gilt, chased and engraved. The bowl is in the form of a lotus flower with a lightly gilt interior, supported by a bent tubular stem, and two curled leaves with engraved veins and tubular stems branching out to right and left from beside the main stem. One leaf is completely curled, the other half open. The sifter spoon has a twig-shaped handle with forked terminal. It's bowl is of the same lotus flower form as the sugar bowl and it also lightly gilt; it is pierced with a pattern of lozenges and roundels.
History note: Fine Art Society, 148 Bond Street, London, W1Y 0JT
Purchased with the Rylands Fund
Method of acquisition: Bought (1998-03-02) by Fine Art Society
19th Century, Late#
Victoria I
1884
CE
-
1885
CE
A talented and versatile designer, Dresser designed with mass production in mind, believing that beautiful, functional objects should be within reach of most people. Therefore, unlike other makers who believed in the power of the handmade, Dresser thought it necessary to work with industrial manufacturers and use machines, to disseminate ‘good’ design as cheaply and therefore as widely as possible. His trips to Japan inspired a subsequent cleancut, linear style that he applied to a range of media, creating objects that proved to be some of the most radical and influential of the final decades of the nineteenth century. His sleek and geometric metalwork anticipated modernism, combining a stark and attractive functionality for users with an emphasis on form and silhouette rather than surface decoration, which allowed it to be made more easily by various manufacturers, including those seen here. This sugar basin and its spoon were made by the firm of Hukin & Heath, which had been founded in 1855 by Jonathan Wilson Hukin and John Thomas Heath. Hukin retired in 1881 and was replaced by John Hartshorne Middleton. The attribution of the design to Christopher Dresser is uncertain.
Decoration
composed of
gold
Bowl
Height 8.1 cm
Weight 220 g
Width 12.4 cm
Spoon
Length 14.9 cm
Weight 17 dwt
Weight 27 g
Inscription present: 'JWH' over 'JTH' in a quatrefoil cartouche
Inscription present: lion passant
Inscription present: leopard's head
Accession number: M.2 & A-1998
Primary reference Number: 133659
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Sugar bowl and sifter spoon" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/133659 Accessed: 2024-11-25 00:03:47
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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/133659
|title=Sugar bowl and sifter spoon
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-25 00:03:47|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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