Barb's Weblog

For todays blog I thought I’d put another art challenge to you all.

This is an image of a silver plated copper slaver I own. It came to me from my mother who received it from her first husband’s family. They imigrated from Ireland at the end of the 1800’s, settled in Wyoming (?) and brought many old things along. This salver is one of them. It has old damage, repaired long ago, but is still a beautiful and amazing piece of metal work. Stamped, repousse’d, carved and pierced. The detail is beautiful and detailed, tiny slaves worshipping a fierce dragon, nostrils blowing steam and holding out gorgeously made wings in deep relief. It is about 8 ½ by 5 inches (about!) and shows a lot of plating loss, but only one small ‘new’ scratch, probably in the last 15 years…but it is minimal in the overall wonder of the piece.

Haole took it to Antiques Roadshow and the metal and jewelry experts pronounced it PRICELESS…cause nobody knew what it was and couldn’t put a value to it! I have always loved it being a metal worker, and since I got this one I found another, it is a long thinner lozenge with an almost rubbed out design of an oriental peasant leading a beautifully dressed horse uphill under cherry blossoms, towards the viewer. It is likely Japanese (hence the cherry blossoms falling) and the dragon is there as a border, but is not so beautifully done: I see cruder work in the cut outs and one area that the smith forgot to saw out. Still, it is a wonderful old thing with a beautiful feel.

Any one have a clue what these cool trays are? Here are some images to look at while you ponder the question!

3:54 PM — e-mail me your comments