Jewellery, Watches, Antiquities and Objects of Vertu

A small silver bowl, by Omar Ramsden, the gently lobbed bowl with lightly spot hammered finish, and facetted lip and foot, hallmarked for London, 1934, and bearing maker’s mark ‘OR’, the underneath stamped ‘OMAR RAMSDEN ME FECIT, diameter 9.7cm. £300-£400

Born in Sheffield in 1873, Omar Ramsden, ranks amongst the most important silversmiths and metal workers of the late 19th - early 20th century. He studied at the Sheffield School of Art from 1887 to 1897, studying part-time and working during the day until he was awarded a Sheffield Corporation scholarship, allowing him to study full time. Afterwards he set up a partnership with his close friend Alwyn Carr. Helen Ashton notes:
“although many of their works, particularly the earliest ones, had many characteristics of the Arts and Crafts ‘style’, neither man held the socio-political views central to the ideas of Ruskin, Morris or Ashbee, [who] came from much more privileged backgrounds…Importantly, thought, they shared the Arts and Carfts passion for hand-crafted work versus mass production, for quality materials, for individuality of design and a love of art.”
In 1903, relatively early in his career, Ramsden was invited to membership of the Art Workers Guild, and later served as its president, from 1929-1937. “A qualification for membership of the guild was to show the intellectual capacity for design in addition to craftsmanship - making another design, however skilled, was not sufficient. It affirmed that the members were not merely artisans carrying out their patrons orders, but creative artists of professional standing.”
Following their successful early partnership, in 1904 Ramadan and Carr moved to South Kensington, building a home and workshop, named the St Dustan's Studio, after the patron saint of silversmiths and goldsmiths.