Read Ebook: Chats on Old Sheffield Plate by Hayden Arthur

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Ebook has 272 lines and 47812 words, and 6 pages

Table Candlesticks, 1765, 1770, 1795 127

Table Candlesticks, 1780, 1790, 1795 129

Table Candlesticks, 1810, 1820, 1830 129

Salt Cellars, from Old Pattern Book 137

Salt Cellars, from Old Pattern Book 141

Mustard Pots, from Old Pattern Book 145

Mustard Pots, 1775, 1785, 1790 149

Mustard Pots, from Old Pattern Book 151

Pepper Casters, Group of 155

Mustard Pots, Group of 155

Cake Baskets, Wire Work, 1800, 1810 163

Decanter Stands , Group of, 1785-1790 167

Decanter Stands , Group of, 1805, 1810, 1815 169

Decanter Stands , Group of, 1805, 1820 173

Butter Dish 175

Dish or Potato Ring 175

Inkstands, from Old Pattern Book 179

Taper Holders, from Old Pattern Book 183

Teapot, 1792, from Old Pattern Book 191

Teapot and Tea Caddies, Cake Basket 193

Tea and Coffee Sets, 1810, 1820 197

Tea and Coffee Sets, 1825, 1830 199

Tea Urn, 1810 203

Tea Kettles and Stands, 1805, 1820 207

Coffee Pot, French, Silver-plated; Sugar Baskets, Pierced Work 211

Sugar Baskets, 1825 213

Soup Tureen, 1805 221

Soup Tureens, 1815, 1825 225

Soup Tureen, 1815 229

Hot Water Jugs 229

Entr?e Dishes, 1815, 1825 233

Hot Water Jug, Adam style, 1770 235

Toasted Cheese Dishes, 1800, 1810 239

Pipe Lighter, 1783 239

Centrepieces, 1790, 1810 247

Centrepiece, with Female Figures 251

Chestnut Dish; Fruit Basket, 1810 255

Appendix

Marks on Silver Plate 275, 279, 283

Marks on Old Sheffield Plate 287, 291

INTRODUCTION

IMITATION AS A FINE ART

ECONOMIC SUBSTITUTION

EUROPEAN IMITATIVENESS

PARALLELS IN ENGLISH CRAFTSMANSHIP

EARLY PLATING

SILVER PLATERS AT SHEFFIELD

INTRODUCTION

Now and again imitation has been resorted to by well-known masters to flagellate the taste of their own day. Embittered by constant praise of old works they have made imitations of old masters' styles and foisted them on their critics until at such moment they divulged their authorship and pricked the bubble of the undue adoration of the ancients. Pierre Mignard fabricated a Magdalen and through the complicity of a dealer it was sold as a newly discovered Guido to the Chevalier de Clairville. Presently it was noised about that the painting was by Mignard. Le Brun, the great painter, pronounced it to be a Guido and in his best manner. The jest had gone far enough, the owner, Mignard, Le Brun, and the critics met to settle the affair. Le Brun and the critics adhered to their belief in its authenticity. Mignard protested otherwise, and said he had painted the work over the portrait of a cardinal, and as proof dipped a brush in oil and disclosed the cardinal's hat. Le Brun, bursting with anger, satirically exclaimed, "Always paint Guido but never Mignard." But the canvases of Mignard and Le Brun both hang together in the leading galleries of Europe.

Nor is this a solitary instance of the pique of artists for lack of discernment in contemporary criticism. Goltzius, that masterly exponent of strongly graved lines on the copper, produced and published six prints in the style of Albert D?rer, Lucas van Leyden and others, and one, the Circumcision, was sold as one of D?rer's finest achievements. These six engravings of Goltzius are known among his work as the "masterpieces." They are certainly masterly imitations, and he executed them to show his critics that though his was a new style, yet he could if he chose slavishly follow the manner of the old masters. These are instances of imitation used ironically as a weapon to pour scorn on the mediocrity and want of knowledge of critics.

In pictures there have been whole generations of imitators and copyists. The continent in the eighteenth century was flooded with sham Correggios, Claudes, Poussins, and Cuyps, and many English painters, afterwards well known, did not disdain to make copies for the dealers of old masters' pictures. David Allan, called the "Scottish Hogarth," was an adept in copying chalk drawings from the old masters; and many artists eked out a pitiable existence as copyists while waiting for the public to acclaim their original work. John Jackson copied the head of Reynolds for Chantrey which could have passed for the original by Sir Joshua. A Rubens he painted in the presence of the students of the Royal Academy was acclaimed as faithful to the original. He was unequalled in such facsimile imitations. Henry Liverseege, in the early days of the nineteenth century, copied Vandyck, Rubens, and Teniers with such skill that few could say which was the original and which the copy. Two pictures, one by Sir Edwin Landseer, and the other a copy, were to be sold on successive days at auction. The painter, strolling in to the auction room on the day before the copy was sold, mistook it for his own work.

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