A 20th century silver Cup by Smith and Harris.

Smith and Harris.
A Silver Society Cup.
A raised tumbler-form Cup on a cast base, London 2008, struck around the body with ‘The Silver Society‘ in individual punches aligned with the hallmarks to form a continuous horizontal band. The interior of the cup gilt.
This cup is one of a series of cups and tumblers, including the lidded Chairman’s Cup, made by Smith and Harris to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Society. The full story of the design of the cups is to be found in ‘Silver Studies‘, volume 23 of the Journal of the Silver Society, and on the website of Smith and Harris. The idea was to create a piece of silver using techniques which were not available to silversmiths in 1958. A tumbler cup was placed on a touch sensitive pad linked to a computer and the random rocking of the tumbler produced a series of arcs which were then translated into three-dimensional form In this process, Smith and Harris were assisted by Patrick Sierolawski, then a student at the Royal College of Art, who grew the three dimensional form in resin using stereo lithography with ultra-violet lasers: this was then cast in silver. The result is an astonishing freezing of random motion into a static and very concrete base into which the hammered curvature of the tumbler sits with perfect aptitude. These cups rarely appear on the market.