AFTER ALENANDRE GUEYTON-ANTIQUE BRONZE CASKET

AFTER ALENANDRE GUEYTON-ANTIQUE BRONZE CASKET

Circa 1854

Height: 6 inches / 15.2 cm
Width: 7 inches / 17.7 cm
Depth: 4 inches / 10.1 cm
Stock number: 856628/0121
Price: £1750

An antique bronze casket after Alexandre Gueyton  by Elkington. A direct copy of a silver casket by the French silversmith Alexandre Gueyton, displayed during The Great Exhibition in 1851. The casket comes raised on a rectangular plinth base, with original red velvet lining to interior. Figures to top depicting a mother and child – the child holding a mirror for his mother. Elkington VR cipher mark to base, and inscribed ‘Department Of Science & Art Elkington’.

An electrotype copy of this casket was bought by the Museum in 1854 from Elkington and Co. of New Hall Street, Birmingham for £5. 5s. It is an exact copy of a silver casket of 1851 by the French silversmith Alexandre Gueyton. The Museum bought the original casket at the Great Exhibition in 1851 for £36 (see Museum no. 155-1852). The electrotype was a design tool for students in the government schools of design under the aegis of the Department of Science and Art.