A Charles Ashbee for the Guild of Handicraft silver gem set box

For sale is this Charles Ashbee for the Guild of Handicraft silver box, set with six opals to the rim and one to the lid.  The lid also with delicately beaten and chased repeating leaf design.  This is a really beautiful, rare and unusual Guild piece with great presence.

The box is in excellent original condition.  The six opals surrounding the rim are all differently coloured, with one showing slight loss of iridescence, and the boulder ironstone visible.  The larger opal to the lid finial is a delicate pale pink blue with just a hint of the underlying ironstone showing through to one edge (probably original/natural).  Please see images where all sides of the bowl are shown.  Comparing this box to it’s original photo there is some minor loss of definition to the pattern on the lid.   Both base and lid are fully hallmarked for London 1904.

This is an exceptional piece of work by the Guild and following some further research I have now found a photograph of what I am sure is the exact box in the Hart Silversmith’s Guild of Handicraft archive in Chipping Campden, to whom I am grateful for their permission to reproduce the photo here – see images.

Price: £5,000-10,000

Maker: Guild of Handicraft Limited

Designer: Unknown, probably Charles Ashbee

Date: 1904

Marks: GofH Ltd, London, i

Material: Sterling silver, opals

Condition: Excellent, see description

Size: 8.0 cm high, 11.75 cm max diameter

Weight: 8.8 oz, 250 g