Silver Spoon Antiques

Elizabeth Bainbridge is the only nineteenth century Dublin female silversmith we've come across. Her work comes up reasonably often, but aside from her name and that she was a watchmaker, we couldn’t easily find any other information.   It appears Elizabeth was the wife of long time Dublin watchmaker George Bainbridge. They married in 1768, with an entry in FAULKNERS DUBLIN JOURNAL: 1768, 2nd July. Marriage. Mr.George Bainbridge, an eminent Watchmaker to Miss. Meares, an agreeable young lady, with a handsome fortune.  George Bainbridge was working at 54 Bolton Street, Quarter-brother from approximately 1766 until his death in 1800. Although a record of his will exists on the indexes, it was destroyed by the 1922 Four Courts fire.  Elizabeth registered her mark with the Dublin Assay office around 1802.  Example of Elizabeth Bainbridge's makers mark along with Dublin sterling hallmarks It appears also she kept running the business from the same location, with a li...

Royal Doulton was already popular in New Zealand by the start of the twentieth century. This was largely thanks to John Shorter across the Tasman who although based in Sydney, ensured that New Zealand was also provided with a wide choice of Royal Doulton products.   With both the New Zealand Exhibition in 1906 and 1907 and with New Zealand achieving dominion in 1907, a special design was launched inspired by Maori Art. This was largely produced in the series ware in china, but there was also a range produced by the Lambeth factory in stone ware. First introduced in 1907, it may also have been revived again in 1925. There appears to be two main combinations found: a gloss blue glazed based decoration and a matt brown base with green decoration, also seen is a green based gloss glaze.  Known shapes: Jardinieres 19cm high, 20cm wide - pattern number 6783 19cm high, 21cm wide - pattern number 6291 16.5cm high, 21cm wide - pattern number 6301 (?) 11.5cm high, 16cm wide Vases S...