Object Description
For sale is this very attractive silver and enamel small vase by Laurence George Connell, the Cheapside based retailer of artistic silverware. Connells was one of the earliest innovators in arts and crafts silver, being the only other exhibitor of such silver alongside Charles Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft in the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society of 1893.
The stylized Celtic design of this vase clearly shows the art nouveau influence of Archibald Knox’s work for Liberty & Co. The designer of this vase alludes me. I think most likely it was designed by one of the London designers of William Hutton & Sons and retailed by Connell. Conceivably it is a Christine Connell design.
The enameling uses a particularly good range of colours and is original and in excellent condition. . The vase itself is also in excellent condition but note there are a few small patches of “broken fire” where the silver colour is showing brighter than the vase as a hole. Fully assayed for London 1906, the marks are clear but slightly rubbed.