Covered bowl with salver 1716 - 1717

Editor: Here we have a covered bowl with salver, crafted by James Fraillon between 1716 and 1717. It’s silver and classified as decorative art from England. The Baroque style, with its intricate details, feels inherently opulent. What is significant about such an ornate bowl set? Curator: Well, looking at this piece, its creation has everything to do with social and economic shifts in 18th century England. The Baroque style was particularly embraced by the wealthy elite of the time and signaled England's own increasing global influence, and served to reinforce ideas about power and status through domestic display. Consider how objects like these were displayed—on sideboards in dining rooms. What purpose do you think the act of displaying wealth served at this time? Editor: It seems like an obvious demonstration of financial success but maybe also a way of legitimizing power. A bowl like this doesn’t seem inherently useful, so the act of possessing and displaying it speaks to more abstract ideas. Curator: Precisely. Its symbolic weight far outweighs its practical application. This object, with its baroque flourish, is evidence of global trade routes which enabled silversmiths like Fraillon to thrive by feeding into a burgeoning consumer culture among England’s elite. Who exactly were the elite patrons of art at that period? Editor: Landed gentry, new industrialists… anyone amassing considerable wealth who wanted to emulate the aristocratic lifestyle. So purchasing such an object became a performance in itself? Curator: Absolutely. Owning pieces like this became about aligning yourself with cultural capital, a way of announcing yourself as someone with refined tastes and sophisticated connections. Do you agree with that reading, based on your initial assumptions? Editor: Absolutely. I had thought about the opulence, but had not considered it to that deep of an extent, and how social forces shaped the Baroque in England. It is definitely an object with a loud voice in that society.