A large Victorian 'Arts and Crafts' Britannia Standard silver dish, London 1899 by Gilbert Marks Of shape oval form, with deep centre and embossed decoration to the rim of poppies and stylised thistles. Fully marked to interior, signed to edge ‘Gilbert Marks 1899’. Length – 43.8 cm / 17.25 inches Weight – 1169 grams / 37.58 ozt Gilbert Marks (1861 – 1905), was an important art nouveau silversmith. In 1901, the gallery space Johnson, Walker and Tolhurst established The Quest Gallery, this would prove to be an important exhibition space for marks in what would be the last years of his life. Having exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Fine Art Society his known oeuvre of around 800 silver objects exhibits the fluidity and organic excellence for which his work is renown. In an Interview that Marks gave to the The Artist in 1898 he stated the importance of using the, “best capabilities both of the metal and the workman-designer. For this reason I do the designs myself, and never produce a duplicate. No dies or machinery are used and so the artist’s fancy is at work upon the subject in hand from the moment when the design is first conceived to the time when the last detail has been wrought in the metal.”