The overall form of this dramatic dish, with its elongated handles capped by jade cabochons, is remarkably similar to a porringer designed by British Arts & Crafts designer Charles Robert Ashbee for the Guild of Handicraft (2009.54.1). This design was produced by the Guild around 1900, but American silver producers would have been familiar with the publication of Ashbee’s designs as early as 1894, as well as with his four subsequent lecture trips in the United States. While British metalwork influenced a number of American Arts & Crafts enterprises, including notable silver studios such as the Kalo Shop in Chicago and the Handicraft Shop near Boston, few other objects of the era are as clearly drawn from British sources as this work.

Adapted from

Kevin Tucker, DMA unpublished material, Label copy.