Paru le 13/01/2016 | Broché 190 pages
Tout public
with an introduction by Clare Gifford
Presenting over 80 of the finest and most historic pieces of silver-gilt, silver and regalia in the Mansion House plate collection, this is the third in a series of books about the exceptional collections in the home, office and centre of entertainment for the Lord Mayor of the City of London and the Corporation of London.
Starting with the unique medieval Crystal Sceptre of c. 1420, seen only at the inauguration of the Lord Mayor and at Coronations, the regalia includes several famous items, notably the sixteenth-century gold and enamel Chain of Esses, the great Mace of 1735-36 and the Pearl Sword of the 1570s, carried before the Sovereign on visits to the City. Used constantly throughout the year, the plate collection includes pieces by some of the greatest names of English silversmithing but also rare ones by more modern masters, including masterpieces previously completely unknown to silver historians.
Michael Hall, PhD and curator of the Rothschild family collections at Exbury in Hampshire, has been Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and was J. Clawson Mills Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. He has catalogued the collection of gold boxes at the Huntington Art Gallery in San Marino, California, and writes on French decorative arts and collecting Old Master paintings.
Ralph Holt specializes in silver and related works of art. Besides English silver from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly Paul de Lamerie and Paul Stotr, his greatest interest lies in silver of the modern era - Boucheron, Cartier, Tiffany but especially Omar Ramsden.
Clare Gifford, PhD and fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Pathologists, was formerly (under her maiden name, Taylor) a haematology consultant and medical director of the UK haemovigilance system. She has lately embarked on a new career as managing director of the City Music Foundation. Her husband was elected Lord Mayor of London for 2012-13.
