A small Joyce Himsworth silver toast rack

Price range: Sold

For sale is this rare silver toast rack by Joyce Himsworth.  The toast rack is beautifully and simply made, a very good gauge and in excellent condition.

The design of the toast rack is modernist and dates to 1954. It is a perfect and rare example of that distinctive modern post war British “Festival of Britain” silver look, that is not Scandinavian in style nor simply a throwback to the art deco era.

This small five bar toast rack is cleverly made from a single curved silver sheet, cut away to create the bars set to “ski” feet with geometric design.  Its brilliance is its simplicity.

Rosemary Himsworth was born in Sheffield in 1905 and from very early on worked with her father Joseph Beeston Himsworth at B Worth a & Sons making spoons and small items of jewellery. She went on to study at the Sheffield School of Art and did design work for the Company. In 1925 she registered a joint mark with her father and established her own workshop in Sheffield. In the 1930’s she studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts under H G Murphy in London and registered her own mark there and in Sheffield. She was not a prolific maker, working mainly to commission. A pair of vases and two chalices can be seen in Westminster Cathedral and a silver and gold Peace Cup made for the ‘Britain Can Make It’ exhibition. She took part in many exhibitions of the Goldsmiths’ Company at home and abroad and taught at Rotherham and Chesterfield art colleges, She retired in the 1960’s and an exhibition of her work was held at the Sheffield City Museum in 1978. She died in 1990. (Thanks to Styles Silver of Hungerford for this biography)

Maker: Joyce Himsworth

Designer: Joyce Himsworth

Date : 1954

Marks: JRH, Sheffield, date letter “M”

Material: Sterling silver

Condition: Excellent

Size: 9.7 cm long, 5.8 cm max width

Weight : 99 grams, 3.5 oz