Pretty pierced and engraved griffins Footed Silverplate Bride Bride's Cake Basket by William A. ROGERS. (WM. A. Rogers) This delicate looking pierced silverplate Bride's Basket features a curvy attached stationary handle and lacy scallop cuts along the outer edge.
The engraved and hand-tooled design in silverplate features two griffins facing each other and scroll work depicting an almost "heart" design about them. The silverplate has no scratches, dents or bumps and is polished to a mirror silverplate finish!
Cake or fruit baskets came into fashion late in the 18th century and experienced their greatest popularity during the first half of the 19th century. These hollowware forms were used to hold carefully arranged fruits or cakes.
Great ceremony often accompanied the display and use of these silver and silver plated cake or fruit baskets, and the delicacies they contained. Most American silver cake baskets and compotes had solid bodies, but a few were made of open, interlaced wirework.
As the close of the 19th century drew near, large numbers of these dishes were made with beautiful multi-colored, ruffled glass bowls. As the century progressed, these amenities grew more elaborate, often having an abundance of naturalistic or stylized ornament added to a complex shape. Many incorporated multi-colored ruffled glass baskets for even greater elegance.
The Victorian dining room, the main room used for many social occasions, was often used for the conspicuous display of wealth through luxurious table objects. Principal among these displays of wealth was the silver cake or fruit basket, always replete with food.
Decorative piercing on early silver was relatively uncommon because each hole had to be laboriously cut out by hand using a tiny jeweler’s saw. Thus, piercing was usually employed only when necessary. The most desirable pieces are elaborately pierced, marked by a well-known and respected silver company and of substantial weight.
Cake baskets are very elegant additions to dining-room silver and remain so today. The best are of substantial weight, often with profuse foliate or animal ornamentation and with a superior finish.
This William A. Rogers silverplate bride bride's cake basket is contemporary in both design and execution. It measures 9-1/4" in diameter from tip of handles, 2-1/2" high to the rim of the silverplate basket and 6-1/2" to the highest portion of the silverplate handle.
The silverplate Bride's Basket is touchmarked on the base as shown indicating Wm A. ROGERS S. P. Copper"(silverplate over copper) B. M. MTS and the pattern number 1115B. This silverplate Bride's Basket weighs almost one pound. You can learn more about the history of Wm A. Rogers from our Silver Manufacturers pages.
#A604 - William A. Rogers Silver Pierced and Engraved Griffins Footed Silverplate Bride Bride's Cake Basket
$55.00
