3-065-748 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Gold plate presented by the officers of the Royal Navy and Marines to the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, 1874. Gift to mark the marriage of Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia: '...a magnificent set of gold plate, manufactured by Messrs. Williams and Hill (late Catchpole), of Oxford-street. There are sixty pieces, forming a complete dessert service for twenty-four persons, which includes a centrepiece and (épergne, four seven-light candelabra, a loving-cup, a pair of claret-pitchers, a pair of sugar-vases, two large oval fruit-stands and four round, twelve salt-cellars, with salt-spoons, and other articles...The vase...is intended to contain a fruit-trophy or a bouquet...on the capitals of the pillars are fruits and flowers, amongst which are golden toads; the stems of the pillars are adorned with cherubs and beetles; fruits, flowers, and masks predominate at the base. The claret-pitchers, while they are copies of Cellini's works, are of the well-known Hebe form, and have for handles a Bacchante and the infant Bacchus. The loving-cup is of appropriate design and finely modelled; it bears the Royal arms and various marine emblems'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.