Lot 341

Early 20th C. English Silver Muffineers - Ollivant & Botsford and Harrods

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Lot 341
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Early 20th C. English Silver Muffineers - Ollivant & Botsford and Harrods
Early 20th C. English Silver Muffineers - Ollivant & Botsford and Harrods
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Early 20th C. English Silver Muffineers - Ollivant & Botsford and Harrods

Estimate: $500 - $750

Starting Bid: $250

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT (In Progress)
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

British Isles, England, Edwardian and George V periods, ca. 1908–1911 CE. A pair of octagonal sterling silver muffineers, sharing the elegant baluster silhouette favored in early twentieth-century English plate yet bearing different hallmarks and a three-year gap between their making. Each rises from a stepped, faceted foot to a swelling lower body, narrows through a tapered shoulder, and culminates in a domed, pierced cover crowned by a turned spire finial. The covers are ornamented with delicate scrollwork piercings arranged in symmetrical cartouches, allowing the fine dusting of sugar, cinnamon, or nutmeg to fall in measured veils across hot muffins, buttered toast, or breakfast pastries.

The first bears the marks of Ollivant and Botsford, Sheffield, assayed 1908, a firm best known for its retail trade across Manchester and the north of England. Its companion was made for Harrods Stores Ltd., assayed at Birmingham in 1911, the year of George V's coronation, when the great Knightsbridge emporium was at the height of its Edwardian prestige. Together they speak to the polite rituals of the late Edwardian and early Georgian table, when the muffineer (sometimes called a caster or dredger) presided over tea trays and sideboards as an emblem of domestic refinement.

The octagonal facets catch the light along crisp arrises, recalling the early Georgian casters of the 1720s that these later examples consciously revive. Such retrospective taste was fashionable in Edwardian silver, when historical forms were dressed in the technical precision of modern Sheffield and Birmingham workshops. As a near-pair, they retain the charm of objects gathered rather than commissioned together: kin in form, distinct in maker's hand. Size (both the same): 2.5" D x 6.5" H (6.3 cm D x 16.5 cm H); silver quality: 93.1%; total weight: 176.2 grams.

Provenance: private Loveland, Colorado, USA collection

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Item # 202765

  • Condition: Excellent. Both are in excellent overall condition.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000