Walnut Sterling Silver

A superb and rare complete Elizabeth II walnut cased, 117 piece, twelve place canteen of flatware cutlery, in the elegant Kings pattern, retailed by Harrods Knightsbridge London and bearing hallmarks for Sheffield, 1963 and the makers mark of  Gee & Holmes. Comprising: twelve table forks, twelve dessert forks, twelve dessert spoons, twelve soup spoons, twelve teaspoons, twelve fish knives with silver blades twelve fish forks with silver tines, twelve table forks, twelve dessert knives six table spoons three piece fork set  All contained in the original superb fitted walnut canteen box with hinged lid and a single fitted drawer and custom fitted in blue felt. It bears the label "Harrods Ltd Cutlers & Silversmiths, Knightsbridge, S.W." This is the complete set, it is highly unusual to find such a nice patterned set with not even a single piece missing! Condition: In excellent condition, please see photos for confirmation. Dimensions in cm: Height 19 cm x Width 50 cm x Depth 35.5 cm  - Canteen case Weight 5.44 kg Dimensions in inches: Height 7 inches x Width 1 foot, 8 inches x Depth 1 foot, 2 inches - Canteen case Weight 175 troy oz Harrods founder Charles Henry Harrod first established his business in 1824, aged 25. The business was located south of the River Thames in Southwark. The premises were located at 228 Borough High Street. He ran this business, variously listed as a draper, mercer and a haberdasher, certainly until 1831. During 1825 the business was listed as 'Harrod and Wicking, Linen Drapers, Retail', but this partnership was dissolved at the end of that year. His first grocery business appears to be as ‘Harrod & Co.Grocers’ at 163 Upper Whitecross Street, Clerkenwell, E.C.1., in 1832. In 1834 in London's East End, he established a wholesale grocery in Stepney, at 4, Cable Street, with a special interest in tea. In 1849, to escape the vice of the inner city and to capitalise on trade to the Great Exhibition of 1851 in nearby Hyde Park, Harrod took over a small shop in the district of Brompton, on the site of the current store. Beginning in a single room employing two assistants and a messenger boy, Harrod's son Charles Digby Harrod built the business into a thriving retail operation selling medicines, perfumes, stationery, fruit and vegetables. Harrods rapidly expanded, acquired the adjoining buildings, and employed one hundred people by 1880. However, the store's booming fortunes were reversed in early December 1883, when it burnt to the ground. Remarkably, in view of this calamity, Charles Harrod fulfilled all of his commitments to his customers to make Christmas deliveries that year—and made a record profit in the process. In short order, a new building was built on the same site, and soon Harrods extended credit for the first time to its best customers, among them Oscar Wilde,Lillie Langtry, Ellen Terry, Charlie Chaplin, Noël Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Sigmund Freud, A. A. Milne, and many members of the British Royal Family.  On Wednesday, 16 November 1898, Harrods debuted England's first "moving staircase" (escalator) in their Brompton Road stores; the device was actually a woven leather conveyor belt-like unit with a wood and "silver plate-glass" balustrade. Nervous customers were offered brandy at the top to revive them after their 'ordeal'. The department store was purchased by the Fayed brothers in 1985. In 2010 Harrods was sold to Qutar Holdings.  Harrods was the holder of royal warrants from 1910 till 2000 from the following: * Queen Elizabeth II (Provisions and Household Goods) * The Duke of Edinburgh (Outfitters) * The Prince of Wales (Outfitters and Saddlers) * The late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (China and Glass) The store occupies a 5-acre (20,000 m2) site and has over one million square feet (90,000 m2) of selling space in over 330 departments making it the biggest department store in Europe. The UK's second-biggest shop, Selfridges, Oxford Street, is a little over half the size with 540,000 square feet (50,000 m2) of selling space, while the third largest, Allders of Croydon had 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) of retail space. By comparison Europe's second-largest department store the KaDeWe in Berlin has a retail space of 650,000 square feet (60,000 m2). GEE & HOLMES LTD This enterprise can be traced to the registration of Thomas Raynes Ltd as a private limited company in 1935.   Capitalised at £1,000, it was based at 39 Eyre Street, and dealt in cutlery and various tools.  The subscribers were brothers: James Fairclough Gee (1899-1974) and Reginald L. Gee (1913-?).    They had been born at St Helens, Lancashire, the sons of James Gee (1868-1948) – an insurance superintendent – and his wife, Agnes née Fairclough.  In 1939, James and Reginald Gee were living with their parents at 47 Brooklands Crescent.  They were described in the Register of England & Wales (1939) as cutlery manufacturers.  Also residing at Brooklands Crescent (62) was Leonard Wycliffe Holmes (1901-1989), his wife Florence, and their son, James Geoffrey (1932-1985).  Leonard had been born in Sheffield, the son of John Clement Holmes (a steel and iron turner) and his wife, Bertha née Shelton.  Leonard apparently received a technical education, as in 1920 he co-presented a paper on electro-plating  at Mappin Hall.  He held an Associateship in Metallurgy from Sheffield University (Sheffield Daily Independent, 19 November 1920).  Leonard and Florence had been married at a Wadsley Church in 1927: she was the sister of James F. Gee.  In 1939, Leonard was working as a commercial traveller in cutlery.   During the Second World War, Thomas Raynes Ltd was listed at 41 Arundel Street – the same address as cutlery manufacturer, L. Holmes & Co.   The Hawley Collection has a stainless table knife marked ‘L. Holmes & Co’, which was probably made at this time.   Thomas Raynes Ltd became the vehicle for a new business entity – Gee & Holmes Ltd – which initially occupied 41 Arundel Street.  In an advertisement in 1946, the partners announced that they would be moving into a new factory at 61 Eyre Lane in early 1947.  The two-storey factory, which became known as Heritage Works, was bounded by Eyre Lane and Newton Lane.  Gee and Holmes...

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