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Fabulous 1839 English Hand Chased Sterling SIlver Castles Basket

Presented is a wonderful early Victorian English sterling silver sweet meat dish or swing handle basket. The basket is beautifully hand chased with five scenes of English castles including Abbotsford House, Kenilworth Castle, Newstead Abbey, Windsor Castle, and Warwick Castle. These landscape scenes are framed with flowers, scrolls and leaves against a finely stippled background. The swing handle has an open cartouche at the top that has not been monogrammed or engraved.

One usually sees these chased Castle motifs on card cases. To find five chased Castle motifs on a bowl is quite unusual. The work is fabulous quality, certainly the equal of Nathaniel Mills, who is quite famous for producing card cases with hand chased architectural scenes.

The basket is hallmarked on the underside of the handle with the lion passant for sterling silver, the duty mark of Queen Victoria’s head, and a maker’s mark of T&P for Taylor & Perry. The rim of the basket is hallmarked with the anchor for the city of Birmingham, the date letter ‘Q’ for 1839, and the maker’s mark.

The overall condition is excellent. The handle has at least two or three repairs on the reverse side. There is also a repair on the reverse side where the handle meets the basket. The backside of the basket has been reinforced. This is a professional and fine quality repair. This repair can be seen between the four and 5 inch position in the photograph showing the ruler. There is a slight crack in the body where the other side of the handle meets the body. There are no dents, no splits, no monograms, no monogram removals, no breaks, and no repairs.

The basket measures 6 1/2 inches by 7 3/4 inches. The height to the rim is 1 1/4 inches. The height to the top of the handle is 5 3/8 inches.

The weight is 213.4 grams or 7.4 ounces.