An Elkington & Co. Gilt Copper Covered Standing Cup Electrotype Reproduction, Birmingham, England, circa 1875. Marks: (effac...

Description

An Elkington & Co. Gilt Copper Covered Standing Cup Electrotype Reproduction, Birmingham, England, circa 1875
Marks: (effaced plaque)
20-1/2 inches high (52.1 cm)
Rim engraved Donum Johannis Sanders Arm qui obut 7 Oct 1669, Religious Loyal Just and True Was he that left this plate to You, and armorial crests engraved to cartouches.

During the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1867, a group of European princes convened and agreed to procure casts and copies of important national objects to promote interest in art. The South Kensington Museum (currently the Victoria and Albert Museum,) encouraged this idea by displaying several electrotyped specimens of differing nationalities at the Exposition. Each of the convention's member countries would decide the objects of greatest importance worthy of copying in their nation's collections. Two firms manufactured the electrotype reproductions issued by Great Britain's Science and Art Department: Elkington & Company, and Franchi & Son. By the time of the 1867 convention, Elkington was already well known for its electrotype reproductions. One of the earliest documented large-scale electrotype sculptures was John Evan Thomas's Death of Tewdric Mawr, King of Gwent (1849), completed by Elkington, Mason, & Co. for London's Great Exhibition of 1851. In addition to the formation and maintenance of photographic archives, the convention encouraged the manufacture of electrotype reproductions, which were more durable than traditional plaster casts. Museum copies would enable greater exposure of the arts to the public while mitigating travel and conservation risks. The convention's rational was acute: Elkington's 1884 reproduction of John Keats' 1816 life-mask for the British National Portrait Gallery is now in better condition than the original plaster version. Museum-goers of means had the ability to have a tangible examination of these examples, which were available for purchase at many museum gift shops. Examples including Roman coins, Chinese antiquities, vases, trophies, and other objects illuminated the history of faraway lands. By 1920, the Victoria and Albert Museum boasted over 1,000 copies of important items from collections across Europe.


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