Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent unused condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The Gilbert Collection of gold and silver is comprised of British Conti- T nental European American and Indian works from the late fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Within this broad span the main concentrations of the collection are English and Continental goldsmith’s work of the mid- sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and English mid-eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century silver and silver-gilt. The vast majority of works in the collection are of English manufac- ture outnumbering the Continental pieces by more than three to one. Despite the importance of Continental influence on the evolution of English silver this numerical imbalance has made inevitable the separation of Brit- ish from Continental pieces in the catalogue and is also the reason for their separate discussion here. The purpose of this introduction is to provide a brief outline of the principal trends and characteristics of English and Continental silver for the periods represented in the Gilbert Collection and the historical and art- historical developments that affected the goldsmith’s craft. It is intended to provide an adequate framework within which to view the objects rather than a history of the subject or of the most important forms of plate some account of which will be found in the individual entries. (OS)