Sugar bowl
Unknown Artist
ca. 1775–85
Medium
Sheffield plate
Dimensions
6 3/8 × 4 3/4 in. (16.2 × 12.1 cm)
Classification
Metalwork-Silverplate
Culture
British, Sheffield
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1910
Accession Number
10.16.16a, b
Art Historical Context
This elegant sugar bowl, crafted around 1775–85 in Sheffield, England, the ingenuity of British metalworking during the late Georgian era. Measuring a compact 6 3/8 × 4 3/4 inches, it was made using Sheffield plate—a revolutionary technique where sheets of copper were fused with silver to mimic the luster of solid silver at a fraction of the cost. Developed in Sheffield in the mid-18th, this method democratized luxury tableware, allowing middle-class households to enjoy refined domestic silver without the expense of hallmarked sterling. Sheffield plate objects like this sugar bowl were integr...