A large Victorian silver centerpiece

A large Victorian silver centerpiece

Tall, inswept base on three scrolling oak leaf and acanthus clasped supports. Above it three caryatids in Classical attire supporting a round moulded basket with fruiting grapevines around the rim. H ca. 53 cm, weight 5,318 g.
Marks of Benjamin Smith III, London 1841.

A similar centrepiece by Benjamin Smith II from 1821 is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 1993.210).

Provenance

Formerly owned by General John Clifford Pemberton (1814 - 1881), Mississippi; collection of Ole Bull, Pennsylvania; collection of Hans Johan Frederik Berg, Oslo.

Literature

Cf. four candlesticks by this maker in the Gilbert Collection, illustrated in cat. The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver, Los Angeles 1988, no. 116. For this type cf. Also a centrepiece by Paul Storr housed in the Wellington Museum, London, illustrated in Hernmarck, The Art of the European Silversmith 1430 - 1830, London 1977, no. 471.