Decorative Arts & Design
Monteith Bowl
Permanent ExhibitionMetalworkVessel
Details
- Author / creator
- Benjamin Pyne (English, active 1693–1727)
- Object type
- Metalwork
- Date or period
- 1715–16
- Dimensions summary
- Diameter: 32.9 cm; Overall: 26.9 × 37.5 cm
- Maker or workshop
- Benjamin Pyne
- Period / style
- Baroque
- Place of origin
- England
- Acquisition method
- Donation
- Credit line
- Gift of the Albright Lane Trust, 1965
About this object
This bowl’s notched rim allows for glasses to be suspended in water for cooling and cleansing between courses during a long dinner. The rim can be removed and the bowl used for punch as well. A year before Benjamin Pyne began this bowl, he was appointed Subordinate Goldsmith to the King in preparation for George I’s coronation (r. 1714–1727). Like much of his work, this Monteith bowl is characterized by its scale and simplicity.
Materials and technique
Silver gilt
Signature and marks
engraved, center of bowl: arms, crest of Byam family (mantling and helmet were probably engraved at time bowl was made, crest and arms were altered to those of Byam at later date). Rim engraved with Byam Crest (also presumably not original).
