Dish ring

W. H.

1777 · Silver · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

This dish ring is a refined example of an emblematic Irish form. Such rings were used on the dining table as a base for a larger bowl or plate that was laden with beautifully arranged food; as a seventeenth-century writer explained “to make the feast look full and noble.” A series of rings of different heights made for a prosperous but not necessarily an aristocratic table, it does not have engraved eighteenth century armorials; the initials AR were likely engraved in the 19th century. Nonetheless, the piece beautifully represents Ireland’s embrace of the Neoclassical architectural vocabulary and the austerity and simplicity with which it was expressed in silver. [Ellenor M. Alcorn, 2014]

Artist

W. H.

Date

1777

Medium

Silver

Culture

Irish

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Purchase, The Isaacson-Draper Foundation Gift, in memory of Hazel Draper, 2014