Townshend & Co : Butler’s Crumb Tray and Matching Brush, Birmingham c1900
£75.00
LOT NUMBER 77
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LOT NUMBER 77
Townshend & Co : Butler’s Crumb Tray and Matching Brush, Birmingham c1900
This is a brass tray with a matching brush designed for the clearing of crumbs from the dining table. It might have been used by a butler, hence the apocryphal term, or possibly a maid or even by a member of the household depending on the grandeur of the establishment. The tray is unusually cast in the form of a pair of confronting sea serpents below a stylised openwork shell, the surface of the tray engraved to represent the scaly bodies of the beasts. The edge of the tray is scalloped and the curving design is repeated in the wooden brush which is decorated with an applied brass sea serpent complementing its companions on the tray. The back is stamped ‘Townshend & Co’ one of the marks used by the manufacturers, Townshend, whose premises were on Earnest St, Holloway Head, Birmingham and who made quality brass and copper art metalware for up-market retailers. (see www. oldcopper.org). This particular trademark was used from around 1890 until the beginning of the first world war after which demand for art metal ware seems to have declined. This fits with the design of the piece whose emphasis on organic forms reflects the productions of the art nouveau style so popular at the time. But while other crumb trays from the period are known, Townshend produced one of the most upmarket examples and this example, rarely a complete and matching set, probably began life in a very grand house indeed. A relic of the past perhaps but not without a practical function, even today!| Size: | Tray, 26.5 x 28 cm, Brush 33 x 3.5 cm |
| Weight: | 885 grams for both |
| Date: | 1900 |
| Condition: | Very good condition; unpolished |
| Price: | £75 |
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