Ellis Finch
Head of Knightsbridge Silver Department
Lot 55*
A Victorian silver centrepiece bowl Hunt & Roskell, London 1882
18 December 2020, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £11,475 inc. premium
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A Victorian silver centrepiece bowl
Hunt & Roskell, London 1882
Modelled as Pliny's doves, the four birds perched on the edge of the bowl, one drinking, two preening and the other keeping watch, on a square base, height 28cm, diameter of bowl 36.5cm, weight 157.5oz.
Modelled as Pliny's doves, the four birds perched on the edge of the bowl, one drinking, two preening and the other keeping watch, on a square base, height 28cm, diameter of bowl 36.5cm, weight 157.5oz.
Footnotes
The design of the current lot is based on a mosaic found at Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli in 1737. This is thought to be a copy of a Greek mosaic which was described by Pliny in his Naturalis Historia: 'There is a dove also, greatly admired, in the act of drinking, and throwing the shadow of its head upon the water, while other birds are to be seen sunning and pluming themselves, on the margin of a drinking-bowl.'
The design was much copied by micromosaicists in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but the earliest three-dimensional representation in silver seems to have been the 1838 Goodwood Cup with the mark of Paul Storr. This was later reproduced by his successors Hunt & Roskell.
A similar centrepiece bowl by Hunt & Roskell, London 1874, was sold in these rooms on 21st November 2012, lot 114.
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