Before the objects were placed in the vat they were generally made by the usual methods of silversmithing. Some of the earlier items were first cast in German silver or Britannia metal. Progress in stamping later hastened and cheapened production. When the vessel had been hammered up from the flat, spun or cast, its ancillary parts previously stamped out and joined by solder, it was ready for decorating. This might be achieved by the ancient method of hand-engraving, by the mechanical means of a lathe such as engine-turning, or by the technique of etching which emulated hand-engraving. Other types of decoration included piercing, usually punched automatically, speedily and cheaply. When all decoration was completed the object would be placed in the plating vat for electro-deposition.

Elkingtons entered into various business agreements, one of which was with Benjamin Smith to whose London firm they agreed to supply plated goods which would be stamped with Smith’s mark. Benjamin Smith’s son married G. R. Elkington’s daughter, so financial arrangements were still kept very much within the family. Later it was agreed that Smith should be allowed to manufacture as well as to sell electro-plated goods in London. Affairs did not work out quite as planned, however, and in 1848 G. R. Elkington bought up Smith’s interests including the Regent Street and Moorgate premises, conducting his own business at the former. The Birmingham branch continued under the name of Elkington, Mason and Company. While Elkingtons were carrying out experiments and taking out patents for new processes during the 1840s, various firms were producing electro-plated goods under licence to Elkingtons, although originally Elkingtons had hoped to get these firms to send the manufactured objects to Birmingham for the actual plating. However, the idea was not practical since it was hardly economically sound for firms to do this.

Antique Collector MagazineAs early as 1842 it was agreed that Barnards of London should have a licence to electro-plate their own products, under the supervision of an Elkington employee, for an agreed payment and a percentage on all goods plated for a certain period of time. This set a precedent for similar licences which were issued during the next few years, and because of this and other factors, the commercial viability of electro-plating made in-roads into the plating industry, and soon superseded Sheffield plate. After four or five years licences were issued to numerous firms in London, Birmingham and Sheffield, and the terms became less stringent as the time limit of the Elkington patent lessened.

Electro-plating was so firmly established by the time of the Great Exhibition in 1851 that several firms featured a prominent display of the new electro-plated goods. Among those who continued to produce Sheffield plate were Bradbury’s and James Dixon and Sons, the latter also showing electro-plated items. Apart from the immediate commercial effects of electro-plating, the long-term connotations enabled Elkingtons to encourage and promote the work of artists and designers such as Albert Wilms and L. Morel Ladeuil. Other manufacturers, too, were able to encourage such designers, producing pieces in silver and electro-plate under the banner of Felix Summerly’s Art Manufacturers, an organisation of artists, designers and manufacturers set up by the eminent designer Henry Cole in 1847 to produce new works and, in the organisation’s own words, ‘to revive the good old practice of connecting the best art with familiar objects in everyday use’. Manufacturers who were connected with the organisation and who made their pieces included James Dixon and Sons, Broadhead and Atkin, Joseph Rodgers and Sons and Benjamin Smith.

Among the artists and designers who produced work for Felix Summerly’s Art Manufacturers were Richard Redgrave, whose designs included a set of knives adorned with ornament representing fish, flesh, fowl and game; John Bell, whose cutlery included dessert knives and forks embellished with fruit, and fish knives and forks decorated with fish and boys fishing; J. C. Horsley, whose decanter stoppers included vintagers, gathering the grapes, wine-making and wine made and, since Horsley also designed the first Christmas card depicting a convivial scene of people drinking, small wonder that the prudish and hypocritical outlook of certain Victorians was reflected in their comments that the card encouraged alcoholic imbibing. Other electro-plated wares produced by this select group of creative artists and designers included a teapot designed by Redgrave which was a fantastic creation called Camellia, topped by a Chinese fairy examining a tea-plant made in Parian porcelain by Mintons; a tea-caddy spoon, designed by Harry Rodgers, and decorated with the ever-popular tea-plant; and a salt cellar, designed by H. J. Townsend called the Infant Neptune.

Naturalism played as important a role in the ornament on electro-plated wares as it did on sterling silver, the electrotype providing invaluable assistance to modellers. Natural items such as ferns and flowers as well as small creatures such as lizards were sometimes preserved in a metal coating so that the designer and modeller could convey their forms onto plate by precise observation of the real thing, for perfection in naturalism was something for which designers strove. Electrotypes were not confined to natural items, however. There is an electrotype of the Mostyn salt of 1581 in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, which bears the original Elizabethan hallmarks since the Assay Office failed to notice and obliterate them. Electrotypes were also made of both Japanese metalwork when Japanese styles became fashionable from the late 1870s, and of contemporary works including a vase made by Hunt and Roskell presented as a wedding gift to the Prince and Princess of Wales.

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Electro-plate Collectibles part 2