A Great Period of English Domestic Plate
PERHAPS one of the most interesting phases in silver-collecting during recent years has been the steady increase in favour and, one may add, market value of domestic plate of the reigns of Queen Anne and George I.
The outstanding feature of the work of most early eighteenth century silversmiths is its extreme simplicity of form and absence of decoration, the designer relying for his effect almost entirely on beauty of line and the play of light on faceted surfaces.
During the reign of Queen Anne the habit of tea-drinking became so popular that we find Addison writing in the Spectator of 1711 about " All well regulated Families that set apart an Hour in every Morning for Tea and Bread and Butter." This spread of tea-drinking was naturally responsible for many new and beautiful forms in kettles, caddies, teapots and other objects connected with the service of the tea-table. Occasionally we even find tea-cups and saucers of silver, the former in the shape of small bowls copied from Chinese porcelain, which, as they had no handles, must have made drinking hot tea a rather difficult performance. Our illus- tration shows a fine example of a tea-kettle and stand, part of the Harvey Madden gift to the Victoria and Albert Museum. They are the work of a well-known London silversmith, Simon Pantin, and bear the hallmark for 1705-6. It will be noticed that both are almost devoid of ornament except for the applied leafwork on the lid of the kettle and the scroll brackets of the stand.
Coffee-pots of the same period and chocolate-pots, it should be noted, are often very similar in appearance, but the latter always have in the lid a hole, hidden by a small cover, for the insertion of a stick to stir up the contents.
SILVER TEA-RE I TLE AND N D.
(Victoria and Albert Museum)
The same applies even to the rat-tail spoon, and the two and three-tined fork of the period, both of which are of an extraordinary simplicity and charm. The fork, it should be remembered, although brought to this country from Italy a century before, was only just coming into general
use.
The finest public collection of Queen Anne and George I. silver is to be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum, but the recent exhibition at 25 Park Lane has shown that there is still an astonishing number of beautiful pieces in private
hands throughout the country. C. T. P. BAILEY.
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