For sale is this small silver and enamel dish by Albert Edward Bonner,  The dish stands on three curled feet in the arts and crafts style, the dish itself set with striking green enamels in different hues.  In excellent condition.

I have finally got somewhere with my research on Bonner.  He was born in Norfolk in 1862 to a farming family.  In the 1891 census, at the age of 29, Bonner was living at home with no occupation given. By the 1901 census (and after his father’s death in 1898)   he is boarding in London and gives his occupation as an “artist painter”  By the 1911 census he is in Kensington and listed as an “Artist metalworker”.  In 1912, at the age of 50,  he married Mary Wright, a minor aristocrat.  Based on the absence of hallmarked Bonner pieces after c 1918 it is assumed he retired from metalwork at that time.  He died in Scotland in 1943, having lived for much of his later years  in Limpley Stoke, Wiltshire.  He was childless.

Bonner was one of those small group of arts and crafts silversmiths who flourished prior to 1914. He was described by the Studio in 1904 as a “designer of and worker in silver and jewellery” based in Kensington.  He was clearly also a skilled enameller  and wrote an article on enamelling for “Arts & Crafts” Journal vol 2, 1905, from which I have reproduced what I believe is a previously unknown photo of Bonner.

Price: Sold

Maker: Albert Edward Bonner

Designer: Albert Edward Bonner

Date : 1907

Marks: AEB, London, “m”

Material: Sterling silver, enamel

Condition: Excellent

Size: 10.0 cm wide, 4.0 cm high

Weight :  84 grams, 3.0 oz