of 'Gothic' barbed oval form, the central reserve painted with an interior view of the Château de Chambord of romanticised medieval figures in vaulted room with the staircase hall behind, within a leafy garlanded border, the rear with impressed factory mark B Walton Co, Wolverhampton and painters title and number Guard Room, Chamboard, 400, together with traces of the original painted retailers mark, possibly Adam? 3? Bishopsgate?, 71cm x 54.5cm approximately

Footnotes

The tray appears to show the famous staircase believed to have been designed by Leonardo da Vinci at the royal Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley, France.

Benjamin Walton & Co. was formed in 1840 with William Ryton. When Ryton retired in 1842, Benjamin Walton became director until his death in 1847. The firm was located in Old Hall in Wolverhampton which housed a long line of japanners from 1767 to 1882 -- Jones & Taylor, Obadiah & William Ryton, Ryton & Walton, Benjamin Walton & Co, and Frederick Walton & Co.

The artists employed by Walton introduced a new decorative style of church interiors, famous houses and castles painted against gold or bronze backgrounds. This type of decoration was so popular that it became known as the 'Wolverhampton style'. Walton & Co. is particularly known for a series of these so-called 'gothic' shaped trays, typically measuring 20-25 inches wide, and are seldom, if ever, signed by the artist. However, they are generally impressed B. Walton & Co. or B. Walton & Co. Warranted and titled on reverse with evocative descriptions of the scene depicted it is probable that the three or four finely-painted tea-trays recorded as being on the display of the Wolverhampton Old Hall stand at the 1846 Manchester Exposition were of this type.

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Michael Lake