each piece tapering cylindrical and on spreading foot with milled border, the sides part fluted and engraved with Art Deco style fleur-de-lys and scrolls, comprising a coffee-pot; a hot-milk jug, each with ebonised handle and tapering finial and a sugar-bowl
the coffee-pot 26cm high, total gross weight 92oz 17dwt, 2,889gr (3)

Remarkably little seems to be known about the maker of this extraordinary 18ct gold service. The maker’s mark ‘ES&Co’ does not seem to be recorded in any of the standard hallmark reference books though online sources seem to all conclude that it belongs to E. Silver and Co. who are recorded at 81 New Bond Street, working from 1930 to 1952. One such online source further suggests they were selling silver and gold produced by Mark Tyzack and Sons, which suggests, as does the address on New Bond Street, that they were more likely to have been retailers rather than working gold and silversmiths, though again there seems to be no published records of such a silversmith. What is clear from the known extant works is that the items they were producing were of the highest quality and design as shown in the present service. One such example is a three-piece tea-service, referred to as ‘the flying tea-service’. Made in silver and in a similar modernist style to the present service it is now in the Pearson Silver Collection (see J. Andrew and D. Styles, Designer British Silver from Studios Established 1930-1985, Woodbridge, 2015, pp. 528-529).

The early provenance of the service is unfortunately not known. Family history suggests a connection to King Farouk. The Palace Collections of Egypt, as sold in a number of sales by Sotheby’s in March 1954, certainly contained luxury items such as this service and so that is certainly a possibility, though as yet unproven. E. Silver and Co. were certainly patronised by the very wealthiest clients. Another client who was buying from them was J. Paul Getty. He was known to have owned a gold service which was subsequently sold by the J. Paul Getty Museum at Christie’s, New York 19 April 1990 as lots 43-48. The group, in 18ct and 22ct gold, included twelve gold dessert-plates, 11 various dishes and a pair of ashtrays. Together the items weighed over 13kg and, as it happens, were each hallmarked for 1947, the same year as the present service.