Iron Salver

Other Notes:

The iron body of the salver is covered in a profusion of applied silver vegetal ornament suggesting Renaissance or baroque design, but having a definite Eastern flavour. The heavy relief silver appliqué is chased and engraved. Both the outer contoured edge and the inner oval recess are outlined with a gold border in the form of a relief moulding. The only true damascening is in the narrow border of the basin and consists of a series of gold leaves.

The entire iron background to the applied gold and silver has been finely stippled with a pointed punch and subsequently blued. The blue also covers the polished iron back of the salver, which bears the engraved ‘PZ’ mark. This salver seems to be a greatly reduced version of the salver ‘between four and five feet long’ described and illustrated in 1879 in the Magazine of Art in an article on the furnishings of Alfred Morrison’s home at 16 Carlton House Terrace.

The nature of the applied ornament precludes any utilitarian purpose for this salver, which must be regarded solely as an art object. Like its four-foot counterpart, it certainly was intended to be displayed vertically.