Arts & Crafts silver five piece cruet set made by Charles Boyton marked for London 1937.
Dimensions: Salt – 4,5cm high. Pepper – 7,5cm high. Mustard – 6cm high.
Weight: 299 grams.
Charles Boyton (1885-1958) broke away from the family firm in existence since 1825 and set up independently in 1934 in Marylebone Lane, London. He rejected the mass reproduction of silverware and is known for his stylish Art Deco silver with an Arts and Crafts flavour. He promoted himself as an ‘English silversmith and Designer’ and his pieces are signed with an engraved facsimile of his signature. The aim of this was to have accentuated the hand-made quality of his work. Strongly influenced by designers such as Georg Jensen (Denmark) and Jean Puiforcat (France) much of his work also included the use of ivory. The workshop closed at the beginning of the Second World War in 1939 when his son Charles Boyton Junior went to serve in His Majesty’s Forces. It was never to reopen.