Skip to main content

Irish Georgian Silver - Bright Cut Patterns


Antique Irish Bright-Cut Sterling Silver


Bright-cut engraving hit England in about 1780 and was in fashion for about 30 years.  It can be readily found on antique Georgian sterling silver spoons and sugar tongs of that time. Bright-cut decoration is when the pattern is faceted out of the silver so as to reflect light at different angles. Personally, bright-cut designs are one of our favourites, as there is such variety of patterns and they are very pretty to look at. 

 Ireland generally followed the English trends and Bright-cut was no exception. As they often did though, the Irish put their own national spin. There are four main patterns that you will find on Irish Bright-cut silver of the time; Star Pattern, Flower Pattern, Bow Pattern and Prince of Wales Plumes Pattern. 

Examples of Irish Star Pattern on teaspoons

Star Pattern

This is the most common and the most recognisable Irish pattern. It is seen in a number of forms, but the most readily found is the far right example shown. 





Irish Star Pattern on a pair of sugar tongs by Benjamin Tait

Flower Pattern

Flowers are a common design feature in all sorts of decorative arts. They were a reasonably common decoration in the Irish Bright-cut design. Normally just a single one is represented on each spoon/tong arm. 
A more detailed flower on a pair of Irish sugar tongs

The typical flower pattern, including a stem
Bow Pattern

We've seen two main versions of the Bow represented. The first is a full almost three dimensional one, the second a single stylised version. 

Two versions of the Bow Pattern on Sugar Tongs
A worn example of a Bow Pattern on a teaspoon














Prince of Wales Plumes Pattern

Prince of Wales Flume Pattern on a pair of Dublin Teaspoons
This pattern was very popular in Limerick and on Limerick Silver, but it can also be found on Dublin made pieces. It has been suggested the emblem was related to Limerick's ruling family of Percy. 






CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR IRISH SILVER FOR SALE: IRISH COLLECTION
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Women Silversmiths - Dorothy Langlands of Newcastle

Did you know that there have been women silversmiths for hundreds of years?   Women have been noted as silversmiths for hundreds of years.  Widows would often continue on the business of their husbands (often placing their maker's mark in a lozenge) and daughters would enter business partnerships with relatives also in the trade.  Dorothy Langlands was a widow who continued business for 10 years after her husbands death.   For sixty years the Langlands family were the largest manufacturers of silverware in Newcastle, England.   Dorothy Langlands  was the wife of John Langlands II and she took over her husband's business in 1804 when he died. She retired in 1814 and died in 1845.  This means we can date all silver marked with her maker's mark (D.L) to 1804-1814.  This is helpful because a lot of smaller silver items would not have been stamped with the date letter.   Below are two examples of her work.  A nice pair of bright-cut sugar tongs and a set of four Old E
Post a Comment
Read more

What's the rarest? Silver from Scottish Provincial towns.

Antique Scottish Provincial silver is one of the most interesting and confusing areas of silver collecting. There were numerous towns that were producing silver in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There were no regulations governing these towns, so each town (or silversmith) came up with their own marks. These were often related to town symbols or coat of arms. It is often the question of rarity that wildly affects the value for these pieces of silver. Below is a table of suggested rarity: Scarce Rare Very Rare Aberdeen Arbroath Cupar Dumfries Ballater Ellon Dundee Banff Fochabers Glasgow (pre-Assay office) Canongate Forres Inverness Elgin Leith Perth Greenock Nairn Iona Peterhead Montrose St. Andrews Paisley Stonehaven Tain Wick This list is published by antiquesilverspoons.co.uk and is based on the research of Richard Turner (who's book, A Directory of Scottish Provincial Silversmiths and Their Ma
2 comments
Read more