Object Description
A large and imposing antique silver bowl or wine cooler. Heavy gauge silver. Decorative side handles in the Art Nouveau style. To the front there is a deep relief fairy tale scene from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. The interior is gilded.
Weight approx. 3700 grams, 118 troy ounces.
Height 27 cm, 31 cm to top of handle. Spread 51 cm.
English sterling silver. London 1887.
Maker John Newton Mappin.
MAPPIN
Jonathan Mappin opened a silver cutlery workshop in Sheffield in 1775. He was followed by his son and 4 grandsons into the family business and Mappin Brothers Ltd was founded in the mid 19th century. In 1849 the firm opened their first London showroom at 17 Fore Street. In 1860, John Newton Mappin, the youngest son broke away from Mappin Brothers and started his own business Mappin & Company. John Mappin was joined in the new venture two years later by his brother in law George Webb and in 1868 Mappin and Webb & Co was formed. In 1903, John Mappin acquired the original London retail business, Mappin Brothers, and from 1904, the Company was known as ‘Mappin & Webb Ltd incorporating Mappin Brothers’. The double named business is evident in some of the old store photographs from this era which show both Mappins and Mappin & Webb names on shop exteriors. Their relationship with the monarchy began in the late 19th Century and was formalised when HM Queen Victoria granted a royal warrant to Mappin & Webb their first as silversmiths, in 1897, the year of The Queen’s diamond jubilee. Mappin & Webb has held a royal warrant as silversmiths to each of the five subsequent sovereigns and today holds a Royal Warrant as Silversmiths to HM The Queen and to HRH The Prince of Wales. A full history can be seen at http://www.mappinandwebb.com/i/our-history