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Overview
This pair of sterling silver bon bon dishes feature circular curved bowl tops, cast open treble supports with mock rivets and domed circular bases.The latter features the retail mark "Frank Hyams Ld 128 New Bond St W', and the following hallmark stamps: 'FH Ld' For Frank Hyams Limited, a Lion for for Sterling, a Leopard head for the city of London, and N for 1908.
Bon bon dishes became fashionable in the middle of the Victorian period, and reflect the growing passion for desserts and sweets as more andmore sugar began to be imported into England.
Frank Hyams opened a watchmaker and jewellery business in Princess Street, Dunedin in 1885. Five years alter he was awarded a first order of merit for the manufacture of gold, gem and pounamu jewellery at the 1890 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition. Hyams married Henrietta ‘Ettie’ Hallenstein, who was one of four daughters of Mary and Bendix Hallenstein who founded a clothing, retail and manufacturing empire in Otago. Following Ettie’s premature death in 1895, Hyams married Ettie’s London-based cousin Hilda Hallenstein in 1897. The following year he established a second branch of his business in New Bond Street, London alongside Faberge and other high end makers, catering to prestigious clientele, including government officials and aristocrats.
Hyams sold a wide variety of jewellery, watches, tableware, clocks and china through his stores. While he advertised that he specialised in 'South Seas and Maori curios', and in greenstone cutting and manufacture, he also produced silver tableware in a range of styles. These Arts & Crafts style bon bon dishes show the influence of Christopher Dresser and Tudric pewter.