£4,250
Decorative Arts: Design since 1860 | 577
Auction: 23 October 2019 at 11:00 BST
with planished surface, the cover with red enamel roundel and openwork finial, set with a red cabochon and enclosing a plated interior, the bowl above a knopped stem with openwork plant form supports, above a circular base with six domed roundels
Literature: Crawford, Alan 'C.R. Ashbee', Yale University Press 1985, pp.318-321.
Note: During the early 1890s, the Guild of Handicrafts started using silver and silver plate for the first time. The focus at first was decorative sports trophies and cups, followed by more functional objects in the latter half of the decade as the Guild shifted its attention to silver tableware. Ashbee continued to make cups with covers, some of which were used as prizes or trophies for sport in the late 1890s and early 1900s. These he produced partly because of his interest in watching competitive sports, and also because of his passion for craftsmanship and his disdain for mass-produced trophies that he believed to be an insult to both art and athletics. The cup and cover offered here demonstrates this admiration for hand-crafted metalwork. The textured surface of the metal is intentionally left unsmooth or planished to show the human interaction and imprint of the craft. It demonstrates typical characteristics of Ashbee's designs, not only with regard to its finish but also due to the foliate openwork decoration, the enamelling and the setting of cabochon stones (which also feature in his jewellery and metalwork from the early 1890s.) The plated finish on the interior is thought to have extended throughout the piece and has now been polished away. The form is inspired by German and Dutch standing cups of the 1600s, of which there was a fine collection at the South Kensington Museum in London, where Ashbee was a regular visitor.