Private collection, UK

P. Cannon-Brookes, Omar Ramsden 1873-1939. Centenary Exhibition of Silver, exh. cat. (Birmingham: Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, 1973).

Omar Ramsden (1873-1939) was a Sheffield-born silversmith whose work is highly sought after. His pieces are both practical and decorative, and typically hand-made in the tradition of the Arts and Craft Movement. His silver designs feature influences from the curving lines and organic forms of the Art Nouveau period to post-war crisp lines of the Art Deco style. Yet his work also drew on inspiration from Renaissance metalwork techniques, which involved hammering and embossing the silver. There too is evidence in his designs that Ramsden recognised the style and skills of the Danish silversmith and sculptor Georg Jensen (1866-1935), whose work was characterised by hammer marks, flora and fauna, oxidization and the application of coloured gem stones - all of which can be seen in Ramsden's silver. The sculptural qualities of Ramsden's pieces can also be attributed to his awareness of Jensen's designs.

In his youth Ramsden attended summer schools at the Royal College of Art and later studied in the Victoria and Albert Museum, before setting up a workshop with his peer and friend from Sheffield School of Art, Alwyn Charles Ellison Carr (1872-1940). This partnership was prosperous, with their most important joint commission being a monstrance made in 1906 for Westminster Cathedral. Their partnership came to an end in 1914 when Carr enlisted in the army, after which Ramsden worked independently with a team of specialist workers to complete the increasing number of commissions. His partnership with Carr was formerly dissolved in 1919, before which Ramsden registered his own silver mark in 1918. Over the course of the next two decades Ramsden catered to the conservative tastes of the propertied social milieu, whose continued patronage saw his reputation as a fashionable designer of decorative domestic wares, ceremonial and church plate flourish. Ramsden's portfolio of silverware extends beyond a wide range of dining accoutrements, to jewellery and other personal items.

Ramsden frequently participated in professional debates about his craft and was viewed as an authority for a time, so much so, he contributed articles on modern silver design to the Goldsmiths Journal in 1928. He was also interested in the history of mazers, publishing an illustrated booklet on them in 1938. Ramsden was awarded many professional honours and is recognised today as a significant figure in the revival of public interest in silver design, resting on his ability to combine traditional and modern styles whilst adapting to contemporary prevailing tastes. Collections of Ramsden's work are held at Goldsmiths' Hall, the Victoria and Albert Museum, St Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield, and Westminster Cathedral, London; Birmingham City Museum; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield; and the Campbell Collection, Toronto.

These high-quality spoons reflect a combination of Ramsden's key influences, in which we see a beautiful tendril looping around the naturalistic stem and terminating in a cast ornamental finial. The deep, hammered bowl of the spoons is another nod to the style and techniques Ramsden applied, which also have three-branch extensions to the stem on the underside. These spoons are an example of his adaptation of an earlier style he and Carr developed, which were flat-handled spoons. Ramsden reimagined this design in three-dimensional terms during the 1930s, and as such made reference to a popular style of spoons from the medieval period. The spoons are laid in their original cushioned wooden box, which is monogrammed in black script on a satin finish with the following inscription:

OMAR RAMSDEN
Artist Goldsmith
London, England