88 piece Bead Pattern Canteen, 1897

88 piece Bead Pattern Canteen (12 place settings), London 1897 by Holland, Aldwinckle & Slater

The Service

We are offering for sale an excellent late Victorian silver 12 place settings canteen in Bead Pattern. The service provides for 7 pieces for use with 12 place settings. 

This is a straight and complete flatware service, with all the spoons and forks original to the canteen and hallmarked for the same date and maker (egg spoons are 1893-96).   

The spoons and forks were all hand-wrought in London, which means they are of a superior quality to later machine made pieces with a better balance, appearance and durability. All the pieces have a good hefty feel in the hand, have crisp decoration and are engraved with an attractive camel crest.

The 6 egg spoons are a bonus and not generally present in a canteen. These days, they are widely used as coffee spoons and we also have a very similar set of 6 available as an optional extra should you want to make up the twelve. The soup spoons are in the traditional oval bowled and have the dual purpose of being useful as serving spoons. There are only ten table spoons, but we can provide an extra two slightly smaller, but very similar examples to make up the dozen if required.

The 24 knives are new with hallmarked silver handles and stainless steel blades – these are not engraved and make an excellent match.

We can also offer a soup ladle and salt spoon from the same original service as optional extras see below.

Bead Pattern

Bead pattern is a very popular pattern because it treads the fine line between a plain and an ornate pattern. The shape of the handles is Old English pattern with an attractive border of beading to both sides (double-struck). Bead pattern was first in fashion during the 1770/80’s and was revived in the late 19^th century. There are several variations in the size of the beads, with the bigger size that is struck to both sides of the handle, as seen in this service, being the best quality and most popular version.

The Makers

Holland, Aldwinckle & Slater were first established in 1838 when Henry Holland Senior entered his first mark at Goldsmiths Hall. Following Henry Holland Senior's retirement in 1880, the firm was taken over by Henry Holland Junior, John Aldwinckle and Thomas Slater.

One of the most important aspects of the new look firm was the acquisition of Chawner & Company together with all their dies and tools in 1883. Chawner & Company (since 1840 under the leadership of George Adams) was the premier UK specialist maker of silver flatware. They made a huge range of patterns and these were passed on to Holland, Aldwinckle & Slater for continual use. The Bead pattern in this service was made from dies formerly used by Chawner & Company and so pieces marked with the GA maker’s mark of George Adams tend to match.

The maker's mark on the pieces within this service are those for the partners in 1897: Thomas Slater, Walter Slater and Henry Holland (TS/WS/HH)

Components

This 88-piece service consists of the following:

Total weight of weighable silver 3815 grams (122.7 troy ounces) plus 24 non-weighable silver handled knives.

Optional Extras

• Soup Ladle – London 1897 by Holland, Aldwinckle & Slater -  33.5cm; 290g - £220
• Salt Spoon with gilt bowl – London 1897 by Holland, Aldwinckle & Slater -  10.8cm; 23g - £25
• 6 Egg Spoons (different crest) – London 1912 by Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co. Ltd – 12cm; 133g - £150
• 2 Table/soup Spoons (no engravings) – London 1863 by George Adams (Chawner & Company) – 21.5cm; 128g - £120

Plus a wide selection of other serving pieces in Bead pattern by Chawner & Company (e.g. basting spoon, sauce ladles, butter knives, condiment spoons etc.).

Condition

Excellent polished condition throughout. Full and equal length fork tines and nice thick spoon bowl tips. This is a lovely service in great condition.

Presentation

This canteen is offered within 8 new anti-tarnish cutlery rolls. Each roll contains 12 items within individual pockets to prevent scuffing.

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.