Price range: Sold

A small deviation from my typical turn of the century items to embrace the best of British art deco silver.   For sale are these lovely peppers designed in c 1934 by Keith Murray.  The design matches a similar cocktail shaker Murray also designed at this time.   Both peppers are fully hallmarked for 1935 with additional Jubilee mark.  Sterling silver pieces in this design are rare. The lids are removable.

Keith Day Pearce Murray was born on 5th May 1892 in Auckland, New Zealand and emigrated to Britain, with his parents, in 1906. He served with distinction with the Royal Air Force and Royal Flying Corps during both the First and second World Wars. After the first World War war he attended the Architectural School of Architecture (1919) and was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) on completion of his studies in 1921.

In this same year he started work in the offices of Maxwell Ayrton but the economic crash of 1929 forced him to seek other employment. He already collected early English glass and, inspired by the Modernist continental designs he had seen at the Paris Exposition of 1925 and the exhibition of Swedish Industrial Art in London (1931) he started designing glassware.

Stevens & Williams glassworks, wanted to develop a modern line to compete with Swedish imports, and employed Murray on a freelance basis.  He worked exclusively for them on a freelance basis creating about 150 glass designs a year (1932-39). Murray also worked on a freelance basis for Wedgwood pottery. His last design work for Wedgwood occurred during the period 1946 to 1948. He also designed the decoration for the Savoy Hotel china and turned his hand to designing silver for Mappin & Webb in 1934.

Murray’s designs were celebrated by modernist critics of the day and his design work appeared in exhibitions from the outset. In 1933 there was an ‘Exhibition of new Wedgwood shapes designed by Keith Murray’ at John Lewis in Oxford Street, his work appeared in the exhibition ‘British industrial art in relation to the home’ at Dorland Hall, and he was awarded a Gold medal at the 5th Triennale Milan in this same year. As well as Britain Can Make It (1946), his work featured in the exhibition of British Art in Industry (1935), the Paris Exposition (1937) and Design at Work (1948). In 1936 he was appointed one of the first ten Royal Designers for Industry (RDI).

Murray returned to his architectural career setting up a practice with Charles White in 1936. Their first major commission, appropriately, was the design of the new Wedgwood factory at Barlaston, Stoke on Trent and in 1939 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. After the Second World War he devoted himself to his architectural practice until his retirement in 1967. Their work included Hong Kong Air Terminal, the BEA Base at London Airport and numerous other industrial and office buildings. In 1951 he redesigned Wedgwood’s London showrooms with two other RDIs, R.Y. Goodden and R. D. Russell.

Murray died at the age of 88 on 16th May 1981.

Most of Keith Murray’s work for Mappin and Webb was produced in silver plate.

Condition is excellent and they are a good gauge of silver.

Maker: Mappin & Webb

Designer: Keith Murray

Date: 1935

Marks: Mn & Wb, Sheffield, S

Material: Sterling silver

Condition: Excellent

Size: 8.5cm high

Weight : 66 grams, 2.3 oz each