Elkington & Co. Garniture Set

This incredible enameled silver plate and crystal dish set by Elkington & Co. represents one of that venerable company's first efforts at producing this famous enamel work. Designed by W. Albert Willms, head of Elkington's design studio from 1855 until his death in 1899, these remarkable pieces feature beautiful cut crystal bowls supported by colorful and finely fashioned pedestals in the sophisticated Pompeian style. With its Greek- inspired fan motif, vine-like swirls and paw feet, this service is both revolutionary and classic.

Circa 1864

Small pedestals: 6” high x 7 7/8” diameter
Medium pedestals: 9 7/8” high x 8 1/4” diameter
Large pedestal: 18 1/2” high x 12 3/8” diameter

Known as one of the finest 19th-century producers of electroplate wares, Elkington & Co created pieces of individual and exceptional design. The company was the earliest English firm to experiment with champlevé enamel, on dish sets such as this one. This type of enameling consists of cutting away troughs or cells in a metal plate and filling the depressions with pulverized vitreous enamel, as the raised metal lines between the cutout areas form the design outline. Elkington exhibited a 13-piece dessert service in this pattern at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. It won a medal for artistic merit for Willms, and was described by J.B. Waring's in his monumental work, Masterpieces of Industrial Art and Sculpture at the International Exhibition of 1862, as “ remarkable for unusual elegance of taste in design, a judicious combination of colored enamels with silver, and a degree of artistic finish which are not too often found even in the best works of this class.”