Anonymous, 1848. Presentation of plate to Lord Ellenborough. Allen’s Indian Mail no. 95 (22-02-1848): 121
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| Location: |
Asia - South Asia - India |
| Subject: |
History |
| Species: |
Indian Rhino |
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PRESENTATION OF PLATE TO LORD ELLENBOROUGH. - A magnificent service of plate for presentation to Lord Ellenborough by his friends in India, has just been completed by the eminent silversmiths Messrs. Hunt and Roskill. The service consists of a centre-piece, two ornaments for the ends of the table, two candelabra, four ice-pails, four desert-stands, and 132 tableplates; it weighs in all 7,000 ounces, and is valued at £6,000. The designs were furnished by Mr. Frank Howard, and the modelling was entrusted to Mr. Alfred Brown, a young artist, we believe, in the employ of the manufacturers. The centrepiece is a work of great elaboration and high finish; it consists of two figures, Asia crowning Britannia, very chastely designed and carefully executed. The pedestal is of Indian architecture, with palm-leaves at the angles. In the panels are the arms of the recipient; the inscription simply, " Presented to the Earl of Ellenborough, as a mark of respect and esteem, by his friends and admirers in India ;" and, in alto relievo of dead silver, the signing of the treaty of Nankin. On the base are figures of a captive Affghan, a captive Chinese, and a British sepoy, with the British lion between; and in the lower panels, views of Calcutta, Cabul, and Canton. The supporters are recumbent elephants. These animals are so beautifully designed and executed as at once to arrest attention. The ornaments for the end of the table are the personifications of the rivers Indus and Ganges. The former reclines under a plantain-tree, the latter under a cotton-tree; the rhinoceros in the latter is most admirably executed. It was, we believe, taken from a living model, and such care was used to secure accuracy, that a cast of the skin was made to obtain a correct resemblance of its texture. These ornaments are supported by Brahmin bulls, and the candelabra rest on recumbent camels, both which animals are as strikingly meritorious as the elephants in the centre-piece. The candelabra are chiefly in dead silver, and consist of entwined vinestems, very beautifully executed, with figures of different portions of the military service, both European and native. The ice-pails are of lotus-leaves and flowers, supported by plantains and other Indian flowers, with Indian figures at the angles. The desert-stands consist of two Hindoo girls, one depositing her lamp on the water of the Ganges, and the other plucking the sacred moon-plant; a Hindoo flower-seller; and a Hindoo fruitseller. Round the edges of the plates are the lotus-flowers. To describe adequately the manifold beauties of these splendid specimens of art would require more space than we can allow. Of the person for whom they are intended we will here say nothing, but it is only bare justice to observe, that they reflect the highest credit on both the designer and modeller, and are worthy of the manufactory from which they issue.
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Presentation of plate to Lord Ellenborough
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