Silver George III Cake Basket Robert & David Hennell, 1804

A silver cake basket of shaped rectangular form with canted corners, raised on an oval pedestal foot, the interior engraved with a broad band of trailing foliage, swag and floral ornament within reeded borders. The flat swing handle is engraved with matching foliate decoration, its angular form sitting in pleasing contrast to the gently bowed sides of the basket below. Made by Robert & David Hennell, one of the most respected silversmithing dynasties of the Georgian period, this is a well-proportioned and finely engraved piece hallmarked London 1804, a distinguished example of neoclassical silver at its most refined.