Marks Antiques
Mayfair, London
A VICTORIAN PARCEL-GILT, PEARLED SILVER AND TWO-COLOUR GOLD 'AESTHETIC' PATTERN FIVE O'CLOCK TEASET
Complete with Two Teaspoons and a Pair of Sugar Tongs
MAKERS' MARK PROBABLY THAT OF JOHNSON & SPRINGTHORPE OVERSTRUCK BY THAT OF
FREDERICK ELKINGTON for ELKINGTON & CO as retailers
LONDON, 1882
THE SPOONS, BIRMINGHAM, 1878
The bodies of rounded oblong form, all engraved and bright-cut and further enriched with inlaid two-colour gold sprays and trails of flowers within formal borders, the teapot, milk jug and sugar basin on bun supports
Height of teapot 4 in, 10 cm, the undersides of the teapot, milk jug and sugar basin stamped respectively: 174, 176 and 175, in original fitted velvet and silk-lined burgundy-coloured morocco-covered case, the lid impressed with 'Japanese' motif, the lining gilt stamped: 'BY APPOINTMENT / ELKINGTON & CO'Elkington & Co (as retailers)
 |
The firm of Johnson & Springthorpe, whose partners were John Williams Johnson and Alfred Springthorpe, succeeded in 1882 to the business of George John Richards, subsequently Richards & Brown. During the 1870s and until its closure at the end of the 1880s the firm seems to have specialised in silver and silver-gilt whose patterns were inspired by the Aesthetic Movement. Several other items made by the firm have also been recorded as retailed by Elkington & Co.