Posted: 29 January 2020
Category: Company News
Ramsden and Carr Silver For Sale
In amongst a table of mixed silverware one of our valuers was delighted to discover a piece of Arts and Crafts silver by the renowned partnership of Omar Ramsden and Alwyn Carr. A sweet hexagonal form dish set with beautiful green enamel heart shape motifs around the rim. It is engraved underneath “Omar Ramsden et Alwyn Carr me Fecerunt” which in Latin means “they made me” and bears the hallmark date for London 1908.
They met at the Sheffield School of Art and formed their partnership in 1898. Their first studio was in Chelsea and soon afterwards they moved to a workshop in Fulham. They observed the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, where individual production and small workshop practice was valued over the ever increasing mass production of the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Other themes can be seen in their work including Gothic and Renaissance often incorporating a Celtic theme. Their partnership dissolved in 1919 but both of them continued as individual silversmiths. Many regard them as the most important English silversmiths working in the Arts and Crafts style so when pieces come up for sale they are always highly sort after.
In spite of the engraved presentation inscription around the rim it was hotly contested in the auction selling for an impressive £1500, against a pre-auction estimate of £500.
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