He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not…
This is the detail of a sterling silver clothes brush made in Birmingham in 1903 and is just one piece out of a very substantial dressing table set that includes hairbrushes, mirrors, a looking glass, a tray, a comb, clothes brushes, perfume bottles, a glove hook, a perfume bottle opener, a boot hook, a shoe horn, a manicure set, powder pots, a needle case, an appointment book, a miniature Bible, a hair tidy, a hatpin container, an appointment book and even a letter opener, all of which belonged to one of my Great, Great Aunts. All of them feature elegant and ornate repoussé work of a very high standard. Each item depicts a beautiful Art Nouveau maiden in profile with long flowing tresses that twist and curl about her as she stands amid some sunflowers, plucking petals from a flower in that “he loves me… he loves me not” fashion. This style of design is typical of the curvilinear floral and female motifs so popular during the Art Nouveau period, epitomised by artists like Alphonse Mucha and Gustav Klimt. As a child, I called the Art Nouveau lady on these pieces, Clytie, after the Greek mythological legend of Clytie the sea nymph who fell in love with Apollo and was transformed into a sunflower.
The theme for the 25th of May for “Smile on Saturday” is “piece of an artpiece”. I have always thought these silver backed pieces, made by the Birmingham silversmiths Levi and Salaman in 1903, are elegant examples of the silversmiths’ art. I hope that you will agree with. The clothes brush features a pad of boar bristles which were stiff enough to brush the many different outfits worn by an Edwardian lady of fashion of the time, as my Great, Great Aunt was.
This clothes brush is hallmarked with the initials “L.&S.” which are the initials for the silversmiths Levi and Salaman. Founded in 1870 by Phineas Harris Levi in partnership with Joseph Wolff Salaman the two men established a silversmiths firm. They later became proprietors of the Potosi Silver Company in 1878. The firm became Levi and Salaman in the early Twentieth Century and became Levi and Salaman Ltd. in 1910. In 1921 the firm was amalgamated into Barker Brothers Silversmiths Limited.
He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not…
This is the detail of a sterling silver clothes brush made in Birmingham in 1903 and is just one piece out of a very substantial dressing table set that includes hairbrushes, mirrors, a looking glass, a tray, a comb, clothes brushes, perfume bottles, a glove hook, a perfume bottle opener, a boot hook, a shoe horn, a manicure set, powder pots, a needle case, an appointment book, a miniature Bible, a hair tidy, a hatpin container, an appointment book and even a letter opener, all of which belonged to one of my Great, Great Aunts. All of them feature elegant and ornate repoussé work of a very high standard. Each item depicts a beautiful Art Nouveau maiden in profile with long flowing tresses that twist and curl about her as she stands amid some sunflowers, plucking petals from a flower in that “he loves me… he loves me not” fashion. This style of design is typical of the curvilinear floral and female motifs so popular during the Art Nouveau period, epitomised by artists like Alphonse Mucha and Gustav Klimt. As a child, I called the Art Nouveau lady on these pieces, Clytie, after the Greek mythological legend of Clytie the sea nymph who fell in love with Apollo and was transformed into a sunflower.
The theme for the 25th of May for “Smile on Saturday” is “piece of an artpiece”. I have always thought these silver backed pieces, made by the Birmingham silversmiths Levi and Salaman in 1903, are elegant examples of the silversmiths’ art. I hope that you will agree with. The clothes brush features a pad of boar bristles which were stiff enough to brush the many different outfits worn by an Edwardian lady of fashion of the time, as my Great, Great Aunt was.
This clothes brush is hallmarked with the initials “L.&S.” which are the initials for the silversmiths Levi and Salaman. Founded in 1870 by Phineas Harris Levi in partnership with Joseph Wolff Salaman the two men established a silversmiths firm. They later became proprietors of the Potosi Silver Company in 1878. The firm became Levi and Salaman in the early Twentieth Century and became Levi and Salaman Ltd. in 1910. In 1921 the firm was amalgamated into Barker Brothers Silversmiths Limited.