Frans Gyllenberg and Alfred Swanson Sterling Silver Arts & Crafts Sandwich Tray, c. late 1920's

This wonderful handmade sandwich tray is an important example of arts and crafts silver from Boston. Hand-raised, with a drawn and applied ring foot and border at the rim, the design features two opposing hand pierced colonial style 'keyhole' porringer handles applied to the rim. Boston arts and crafts silver regularly featured colonial decoration and in this case the decoration has been adapted to a new form.

An identical sandwich tray can be found in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It is pictured and discussed in detail by Scott Braznell in The Art That is Life: The Art and Crafts Movement in America 1875-1920 by Wendy Kaplan et al. on pages 180-1. Braznell lucidly argues that the creative adaptation of colonial designs to current uses was one of the most important traits in Boston arts and crafts silver.

Gyllenberg, originally from Sweden, is one of only seven silversmiths to be elected a 'Medalist Craftsman,' the highest honor bestowed by the venerable Society of Arts & Crafts in Boston. This tray was made by Gyllenberg and Alfred Swanson, in partnership, after 1926.

Click the following link to read a great article on Arts & Crafts silver including this dish in The Magazine Antiques:
http://www.themagazineantiques.com/news-opinion/the -new-collector/2009-04-23/arts-and-crafts-silver/

This tray is marked underneath 'FGR/ A.H.S/ STERLING/ 292.  It measures 13 inches across the handles and 1 1/4 inches high. It weighs 14.90 troy ounces, has never been monogrammed and is in very good antique condition with a few light scratches to the surface.  

Our Price: SOLD

Item code: J812