Sugar bowl

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...