178 piece Laceback Trefid Canteen, 1917

178 piece Laceback Trefid Silver Canteen of Cutlery,

Sheffield 1917 by Mappin & Webb

The Service

We are pleased to be offering an outstanding quality silver 12 place settings canteen in Laceback Trefid Pattern (also known as Charles II pattern). The 100 year old service comes of age this year as an antique. It provides for a comprehensive twelve pieces per 12 place settings with an extensive range of serving items.

This canteen caters for a formal meal with a full complement of fish eaters and fruit/dessert eaters. These items, together with the table and dessert knives are fitted with thick gauge hollow handles which is a superior quality to the thinner gauge handles that have filled interiors. The forks have 3 tines as were used prior to circa 1750. The servers include a magnificent 34cm long soup ladle and 30cm long basting/serving spoon.

This is a straight service made by Mappin & Webb with all pieces hallmarked for Sheffield 1917 (except for one later replacement teaspoon dating to 1977).  The knives are fitted with stainless steel blades that are engraved “Mappin & Webb”.  Each piece in this service has a good hefty weight and it simply oozes high quality. There are no personalised engravings.

The service came to us in lovely quality wooden cabinet which due to its large size is available as an optional extra – see below for further details.

Lace-back Trefid Pattern

The latter years of the 17th century saw the introduction in the UK of the first flatware patterns for dining and the first use of the fork (previously just a spoon and knife was used). The Trefid pattern with its trefoil terminal is recognised to be the first true flatware pattern and the earliest form of fork is found in this style.

A popular variant of the Trefid pattern, commissioned by the wealthiest and most avant garde clientele, was the laceback with the extravagantly decorated scrolls to the reverse of the bowls and front of the handle terminal. The table spoons in this service are particularly faithful copies of the 17th century originals. The earliest forks had three prongs, (as per those in this set) and it was not until the mid-18th century that four pronged forks were first used. This pattern was generally made by Vanders for retail clients (bearing the makers mark of the retailer) and was also known as "Charles II pattern".

Components

This 178-piece service consists of the following:

Total weight of weighable silver: 8035 grams (258.4 troy ounces). Additional to this weight are the 24 silver handled knives, carving knives, forks and sharpening steel.

Condition

Excellent polished condition with no personalised engravings.

Presentation

This canteen is presented in new anti-tarnish cutlery rolls. These navy blue rolls have individual pockets to hold 12 items per roll. Alternatively it can be supplied in the original wooden cabinet – see below.

Wooden Cabinet

The original wooden cabinet that housed this service stands on 4 legs and can be seen in the final two photos. It measures 110cm tall x 61cm wide x 45cm deep, has 4 drawers with individual slots for each piece and two useful pull out side flaps to sit the pieces being chosen for use.

We have decided to sell the silver on its own due to the size of the cabinet and that it has some minor condition issues – a repair and piece of moulding missing to one of the gate leg doors and impact damage to the top corners. These could easily be repaired by a professional restorer should the buyer wish to have the work undertaken.

We shall be happy to supply the cabinet free of charge if collected or for £50 shipping cost to the UK. It is too large and bulky to ship internationally.

As with all the canteens available from our web-site, we are happy to send a sample place setting for approval, on receipt of a fully refundable surety payment, prior to purchasing this canteen.