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Price range: Sold
By William Connells of Cheapside, a very early arts and crafts dish with Celtic design. Connells exhibited silver items like this alongside the Guild of Handicrafts in the 1893 Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. Designer unknown, possibly Robert Catterson Smith who was Irish and did designs at this time for Connells and went to become head of the Birmingham Art School. See the small silver dish of the same date by the same maker Ref A4.
Maker: William Connell of Cheapside
Designer: Unknown, possibly Robert Catterson Smith.
Date: 1893
Marks: WCC, London, date letter “S”
Material: Sterling silver
Condition: Excellent.
Size: 35cm long, 11.5cm wide
Weight: 315 grams
Connells of Cheapside were one of the earliest innovators in arts and crafts silver. Alongside Charles Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft they were one of only two exhibitors of silver at the 1893 Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. By 1900 they were retailing goods by Kate Harris and slightly later, A E Jones. For more information see an article on Connells “Pioneers of Modern Artistic Silverware” by Dr Stephen Pudney in the Silver Society Journal page 223, Vol 11, 1999.
