Dublin salver engraving

[Silverside]

I have a salver, Dublin 1859, maker William Law. heavily engraved on the top surface yet has a blurred copy of the image of the engraving on the underside. The salver is of heavy construction, 10 inch diameter, 19 oz troy. Question: how did this image appear?

http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh494/MikeGallafent/salver1.jpg
http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh494/MikeGallafent/Salver3.jpg
http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh494/MikeGallafent/Salver4.jpg
http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh494/MikeGallafent/Salver2.jpg

(admin photo edit - images too large - link only - see Posting Requirements )

Any ideas would be welcome!

Mike

[dognose]

Hi Mike,

The maker, as far as I can make out, would have been John Smyth. 'Law' would have been the retailer of the piece, in this case, it would have been Matthew Law, as William, his father, died in 1820.

I have very little knowledge on the engraving technique, and I'll leave that to others, but I wonder if the pattern was applied by machine to a heated surface and the pressure applied forcing a cameo effect to the underside, and the piece re-annealed afterwards just leaving the final inscription to be done by hand on the finished product.

Trev.

[salmoned]

The salver may be heavy, but what is the gauge in the center area? A heavy salver likely carries most of it's mass in the edge decoration and the center may not be so thick, allowing the finish -work to leave an impression on the reverse.

[Silverside]

Thank you for your reply. It was also my first thought but the centre is high gauge and suffices to exclude that supposition and which prompted my posting.

Mike.

[Silverside]

Thanks Trev for the extra information on the maker. Perhaps somebody who has knowledge of mid-19th century engraving may shed light on the matter.

Mike.

[JBA]

Hi there. This decoration around the surface is actually flat chasing, not engraving, and is certainly done by hand. Effectively, it is worked from the front while the salver is embedded in pitch, with a very small chisel to get the deep decoration, and no metal is taken away.

Sometimes this technique is used in combination with engraving to add extra detail, but the salver is reasonably worn and from a photograph I can't confirm this has been done here.
In any case, it is usually referred to as flat chasing even if the chaser has used engraving in the design.

The centre is engraved. I imagine from the front you will not be able to discern any difference between the two techniques, but on the back the flat chasing will be visible, while the engraved centre will not.

Hope that helps a bit!

[Silverside]

Thank you very much JBA. It's great to have one's ignorance dispelled!

For those who may be interested, a search with your favoured browser will bring up good examples.

Mike.