Price: Sold

For sale is this very interesting silver christening cup by the Keswick School of Industrial Arts.  It carries an engraved inscription:

“NEVILE JAMES EVERARD BAPT NOV 24TH 1902”

Research has identified Nevile James Everard as a missionary medical doctor who was born in 1903 and died in 1981, spending most of his life working in India.  His father was a highly regarded Reverend,  Ernest Vores Everard, from Sheffield, from a longstanding family of Churchmen. Quite probably the family was well known to the Drummond family and therefore linked to the KSIA through its founder Reverend Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley.

The cup itself is marked for Chester 1905 (I can only assume it was originally unmarked and then subsequently submitted for assay).  It has that authentic arts and crafts feel you would expect from the KSIA, the handle fitting is particularly attractive.  To the base is scratch engraved “R Temple”, one of Keswick’s leading silversmith who would have made this piece.

See The Loving Eye & Skilful Hand: The Keswick School of Industrial Arts by Ian Bruce for more information   The Keswick School of Industrial  Arts (KSIA) was founded in 1884 by the Reverend Hardwicke Rawnsley  (who went on to found the National Trust). The School was one of the earliest ventures of its type as part of the arts and crafts movement and one of the leading proponents of the benefits of a rural location, which in time motivated Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft’s move from London’s East End to the Cotswolds.  The KSIA was not only one of the first of the industrial art schools or guilds, it was also, to its enduring credit,  the longest established, finally closing in 1984.

Maker:  Keswick School of Industrial Arts

Designer:  Robert Temple

Date: 1902/5

Marks: KSIA, Chester “e”

Material: Sterling silver

Condition: Excellent

Size: 9.25 cm max diameter, 11.0 cm max height inc handle

Weight: 6.5 oz, 183 grams