Silver salt commissioned by Clockmakers
Who's Who designer Barry Thomas has just completed an intriguing commission for the Worshipful Company Of Clockmakers.
Who’s Who in Gold and Silver designer Barry Thomas has just completed a commission of a salt for the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, one of the Livery companies in the City of London.
Barry Thomas was commissioned by the first lady Master of the Clockmakers' company to make the salt at his Derbyshire workshop. The piece was presented to the company at a ceremony in London in January 2006.
The design of the salt explores themes relating to time and the piece has been shaped in the style of a sundial or armillary sphere. The globe which tops the salt has been engraved with lines of latitude and longitude while the plinth is engraved with the coats of arms of the Clockmakers’ company and the donor, together with an inscription. The silver-gilt spoon takes the form of Old Father Time’s scythe.
The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers was founded under a Royal Charter of King Charles I in 1631, with the initial purpose of regulating and encouraging the “art and mystery” of watch and clock making. Nowadays the company is still made up largely of practitioners and students of horology (the art and study of measuring time and making timepieces). The Worshipful Company maintains the historic Library and Museum of Clockmaking next to the medieval Guildhall in London.
