24 Person 183 piece Sterling Silver Fiddle Thread Shell Canteen, London 1850

183-Piece Silver Fiddle, Thread & Shell Canteen of Cutlery,

London 1843-70 by Chawner & Company

The Service

We are pleased to be offering an extensive and very high quality Victorian period silver double-canteen in the very popular Fiddle, Thread & Shell Pattern with 20^th century knives.

This service provides all the important dining pieces with enough to serve 24 sittings, plus has the rare bonus of a dozen steak knives and some useful serving items.

The spoons and forks were all made in the 1840/50/60’s by the same London workshop – the most important specialists in flatware production during the 19^th century – Chawner & Company under the leadership of George Adams and all items bear his “GA” maker’s mark. Although the service is made up with pieces throughout the middle decades of the 19^th century, there are some straight runs within it – for example a run of 24 matching table forks and dessert spoons all hallmarked London 1850.

A major benefit of this service is the lack of any personalised engravings. Fiddle, thread & shell is a premium pattern and generally pieces were engraved with crests or initials, so to have a double service without a combination of different engravings is quite a rarity. Most pieces have never been engraved, but some have been erased. The service is in an original condition, which means that it has the patina of age and use, we have given every piece a clean and hand polish.

The silver handled knives are fitted with stainless steel blades. There are two sets of table & dessert knife combinations; the older 24 being made by CJ Vander in 1978 with the blades engraved for Garrard & Company, the other 24 were made by John Biggin Ltd in 1987. The knives have a very similar look to each other, but the earlier set is a bit fatter in profile (see close-up image of the knives). The 12 steak knives are hallmarked for London 1994 and also made for Garrards.

Fiddle, Thread & Shell Pattern

Fiddle Pattern was the dominant flatware pattern of 19th Century Britain. It was by far the most popular pattern from 1810 until 1880 and a number of variants were introduced – the premier quality variant, adding both a thread edge and a shell motif to the top of the handle and reverse of the bowl, was called Fiddle, Thread & Shell. Because of the high relief and double-struck decoration used on this pattern, a thick gauge of silver was necessary to produce it, hence FT&S pieces tend to have a much heavier weight than their more restrained fiddle pattern counterparts. 

Components

This 183-piece service consists of the following:

 Total weight of weighable silver 9095 grams (292.4 troy ounces) + 60 silver handled knives.

Condition

Excellent original condition. The forks have very minimal wear to the full length tines and the spoons have good thick bowl tips. The decoration remains crisp and every piece has an antique patina from use.

Presentation

This canteen is supplied in new anti-tarnish cutlery rolls with individual pockets to hold 12 items per roll. The three servers are supplied loose. There are fifteen rolls in total.

All of our canteens are offered with a full money-back guarantee. We are also happy to send a sample place setting for approval, on receipt of a fully refundable surety payment - just phone or email your preferences. Alternatively, in-person viewings are welcome by appointment.