Elegant & Formal Pair of ‘Old Sheffield Plate’ Four-Part Entree Covered Dishes with Warmers, England Circa 1825

A wonderful pair of ‘Old Sheffield Plate’ entree dishes, each consisting of a detachable handle, lid, base, and original warming stand with twin handles and splayed feet.  Elegantly shaped rectangular, multi lobed dish with cast and applied foliate, shell trim, branch handles to each side and a detachable foliate cast handle/finial. Configures to one covered dish or two open fully decorated servers, once the handle is removed. There is matching chasing to the interior edge of the lid, so that when turned over and used as an open server, it perfectly matches the base dish. The whole assemblage stands on elaborately cast splayed feet.

A very fine and most serviceable pair of formal tableware in very good overall condition. ‘Old Sheffield Plate’ (OSP) is highly sought after by collectors as the finest method of silver plating ever developed. It was first invented in Britain during the mid-18th century in order to replicate items found only in sterling silver at the time, but at a fraction of the cost. The “OSP” process of sandwiching a sheet of copper between two sheets of sterling silver eventually became phased out and uneconomical with the invention of electroplating in 1840.

Dimensions of each: width 14.75″ x depth 9.5″ x height 7.25″