Centrepiece

This design was criticised at the time in The Studio magazine for its 'cold, rigid, non-committal ornament'. Harold Stabler (1872-1945) trained as a woodcarver and metalworker at the Keswick School of Industrial Art. After moving to London, he exhibited in several of the exhibitions organised by the Arts and Crafts Society. Gradually he evolved a more modernistic style. This design, however, had roots in 18th-century English silver. Stabler taught at the Royal College of Art in London between 1912 and 1926 and undertook many official commissions. In the 1930s he acted as a design consultant to the stainless steel manufacturers Firth Vickers. During the Second World War, however, the initiati

Centrepiece · London · 1938-1939. Silver gilt, with glass shield. By Harold Stabler. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.