Victorian silver-plated Well & Tree meat dish & cover

This magnificent Victorian meat dish and cover was made by Frederick Elkington, considered to be the finest maker of silver plate. The oval-shaped dish is kept warm by its hot water jacket and has the traditional well-and-tree channels to allow the meat juices to drain and collect. The dome is beautifully hand-engraved and has a bead pattern border to match the base. It is rare to find an original pair of base and cover, and this is a particularly fine example.

Elkington is one of the most important names in English silver and certainly the most important in silver plate. Established by George Richards Elkington in 1836, and joined by other Elkington family, the firm revolutionised the silver industry with its electroplating technique developed and perfected by George Richards Elkington. He discovered and patented a way to deposit a layer of silver and fuse it onto the surface of a base metal. It was extremely successful and gave birth to a large new market of silver-plated tableware and a collection of royal warrants. The firm employed some of the best British and European designers of the day and produced decorative silver in a wide variety of styles. Inspired by Tiffany's experiments to imitate Japanese metalwork, Elkington was one of the first manufacturers to produce silver in a Japonaiserie style.