Pair of silver plated chargers of The Seasons by Elkington & Co.

These exceptional silver plated, or electrotype, chargers were made by Elkington & Co., the highly renowned and esteemed Victorian silversmiths based in Birmingham, to a popular and enduring design depicting the four seasons with six months on each of the two pieces.

The chargers depict the four seasons with two on each, the first six months of the year on one, the second six on the other. The style of the execution is that of the Renaissance revival, with splendid female figures and cherubs in circular friezes rendered in high relief.

The design itself is by Léonard Morel-Ladeuil, and is attested to by a charger (of the first six months) in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. This French sculptor's collaboration with Elkington produced many elegant designs in the mid-19th century, as this piece, with beautiful relief depictions of the astrological signs in the form of female figures on the outer rim with putti and cherubs to the centre, demonstrates.

By Elkington & Co., they are marked and one is stamped with registration mark. 
Height 4cm, diameter 54cm