Engraved pattern book or trade catalogue of Sheffield plate, including cruet, soy frames, dinnerware, soup tureens, sauce boats, platters, coasters, salt cellars, mustard pots, serving pieces, utensils, cake baskets, tea urns, candlesticks, candelabra, oil lamps, snuffers and more
This is an engraved pattern book of Sheffield plate, a trade catalogue of silver-plated tableware, published in Birmingham around 1800, probably for manufacturers, retailers and buyers of domestic metalwork. The engraved plates show cruet stands with decanter-like bottles, pedestal bowls, oil lamps, mustard pots and a funnel, drawn in fine outline with hatching for light and shade. A designer could take from them the compact, tiered silhouettes and fluted and beaded edges typical of late eighteenth-century neoclassical table silver.
