Edwardian Silver-Mounted Xylonite Dressing Tray

Edwardian Silver-Mounted Xylonite Dressing Tray, Charles Westwood & Sons, Birmingham

$155.00
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Edwardian Silver-Mounted Xylonite Dressing Tray
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  • Edwardian Silver-Mounted Xylonite Dressing Tray
  • Edwardian Silver-Mounted Xylonite Dressing Tray
  • Edwardian Silver-Mounted Xylonite Dressing Tray
  • Edwardian Silver-Mounted Xylonite Dressing Tray
  • Edwardian Silver-Mounted Xylonite Dressing Tray
Edwardian Silver-Mounted Xylonite Dressing Tray, Charles Westwood & Sons, Birmingham
All objects
KOBK.26.OBJ.063
Edwardian Silver-Mounted Xylonite Dressing Tray, Charles Westwood & Sons, Birmingham
$155.00

Specifications

England (Birmingham), Edwardian, early 1900s

Silver mounts by Charles Westwood & Sons (mark CW&S), Hall Street, Birmingham

Cream reeded xylonite (early celluloid, imitation ivory), unmarked body

Four applied Art Nouveau silver whiplash corner mounts

Central beaded silver cartouche, vacant

25 cm long, 18.5 cm wide, 3 cm deep; 0.15 kg

Hallmarked lion passant (sterling), anchor (Birmingham) and maker's mark CW&S; date letter not clearly legible

Honest age spotting; one small scorch to a corner; silver lightly tarnished; sound

Every KOBK object is one of one and carries its age honestly. Expect marks, wear and patina as part of the piece; any specific fault is noted above. Where an object is photographed on a stand, the stand is included.

Notes

A dressing-table tray from the Edwardian years, the moment the old materials met the new. The body is xylonite, one of the first plastics, made here to stand in for ivory in a cream reeded surface, and set into it is sterling silver by Charles Westwood & Sons of Hall Street, Birmingham, four Art Nouveau whiplash scrolls in the corners and a small beaded cartouche at the centre, left vacant for a monogram that was never engraved.

It has lived, and it wears that honestly. The surface carries the soft spotting and one small scorch that more than a century on a dressing table will leave, and the silver has a gentle tarnish. None of it undoes the charm of the thing, a named piece of Edwardian vanity made in the material that was about to change the century.

25 x 18.5 cm.