Victorian Sterling Inkstand (London, 1871, Goldsmith Alliance Ltd. Samuel Smiley)

  
The beginnings of the Goldsmith Alliance Ltd. Go back to 1812 with the form of A. Savory Silver Manufactory in Cornhill, London, which became the Goldsmith Alliance limited in 1866.

This firm had offices all over the British Empire until 1893 when the company when out of business and merged assets with Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Co. This beautiful inkstand consists of two covered inkwells and a central removable sealing wax wafer container and taper stick (which would originally had a small snuffer). The stand is decorated with solid C scroll and shell borders and stands on acanthus surrounded shell decorated feet.

The central wafer container / taper stick has a gadroon decorated body and a shell shaped solid removable lid surmounted by the curling vine and flower shaped socket of the taper stick. The lids of the inkwells and the bases of all three mounted pieces are decorated with rococo C scroll borders. The platform of the piece is 11 3/4" x 6 1/2". The overall height of the stand is 6 1/4.

The net silver weight of the piece (exclusive of the crystal inkwells) is 593.2 grams. The only condition issue I can find with this fine piece is that one of the inkwells is fractured and repaired with some chips missing under the sterling collar (all secure) and three relatively small chips in the base of the second inkwell. These issues are pretty well hidden by the base and top collars of the inkwells. This item is in the category "Antiques\Silver\Sterling Silver (.

925)\Other Antique Sterling Silver". The seller is "phinneyfarm" and is located in this country: US. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Japan, China, Sweden, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Africa, Thailand, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Bahamas, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Republic of Croatia, Malaysia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, French Guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein, Sri Lanka, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macau, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, Pakistan, Paraguay, Reunion, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica.

• Style: Victorian
• Brand: Samuel Smiley (Goldsmith Alliance Ltd.)
• Age: 1871
• Type: Inkstand
• Composition: Sterling Silver (.