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Antique George III Old Sheffield Silver on Copper Basket, 18th Century

About the Item

This is a fabulous antique Neo-classical George III Old Sheffield plate silver on copper bread basket / fruit dish, circa 1780 in date. The oval swing handled dish features a pierced and engraved body in the Neo-Classical taste with a band of urns, leaf and swags. This item is of the highest quality with fabulous decorations ready to grace your dining table. Condition: In excellent condition, please see photos for confirmation. Dimensions in cm: Height 29 x Width 34.5 x Depth 26 Dimensions in inches: Height 11 inches x Width 1 foot, 2 inches x Depth 10 inches Old Sheffield Plate or ‘fused plate’ as it is sometimes known, was the first commercially viable method of plating metal. The material was accidentally invented by Thomas Boulsover, of Sheffield's Cutlers Company, in 1743. While trying to repair the handle of a customer's decorative knife, he heated it too much and the silver started to melt. When he examined the damaged handle, he noticed that the silver and copper had fused together very strongly. Experiments showed that the two metals behaved as one when he tried to reshape them, even though he could clearly see two different layers. Boulsover set up in business, funded by Strelley Pegge of Beauchief, and carried out further experiments in which he put a thin sheet of silver on a thick ingot of copper and heated the two together to fuse them. When the composite block was hammered or rolled to make it thinner, the two metals were reduced in thickness at similar rates. Using this method, Boulsover was able to make sheets of metal which had a thin layer of silver on the top surface and a thick layer of copper underneath. When this new material was used to make buttons, they looked and behaved like silver buttons but were a fraction of the cost. The technique Boulsover developed was to sandwich an ingot of copper between two plates of silver, tightly bind it with wire, heat it in a furnace and then mill it out in to sheet, from which objects could be made.

Dimensions:

Height: 11.42 in (29 cm)Width: 13.59 in (34.5 cm)Depth: 10.24 in (26 cm)

Style:

George III (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Sheffield Plate

Place of Origin:

England

Period:

1780-1789

Date of Manufacture:

circa 1780