FREDERIC JAMES SHIELDS (1833-1911)
ARTS & CRAFTS COPPER AND ENAMEL CASKET, CIRCA 1890
£4,500
Decorative Arts: Design since 1860
Auction: 25 October 2017 at 11:00 BST
Description
of rectangular form, the hinged lid inset with enamelled panel depicting a faun playing pipes whilst sheep graze, the hinged clasp set with enamel cabochon and worked with interwoven leafy tendrils, the whole opening to reveal a wood lined interior, the angles with applied tapered brackets and riveted decoration, with an ashtray drawer to the front, stamped monogram to lid and clasp
Dimensions
16cm wide, 8.5cm high
Footnote
Note: Ferderic Shields, born in Hartlepool, was brought up in extreme poverty and as a young man managed to eke out a living as a commercial engraver. He studied at evening classes in London and then in Manchester, where he settled in 1848. He was greatly impressed by the works of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which he saw at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857. The quality of his illustrations for Defoe's History of the Plague (1862) and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1864) brought him to the attention of Ruskin and Rossetti, who invited him to visit him in London. He became a close friend of Rossetti and Madox Brown and settled in London in 1876. Rossetti offered him space in his own studio and helped and encouraged him with his work. A close friend of the whole Rossetti family, he was commissioned by Rossetti's mother to design two windows in memory of her son in All Saints' Church, Birchington. He was also a fine illustrator, mural decorator and stained glass designer and enamellist.