Bonhams
Lot 301
An extensive silver Elizabethan pattern table service of flatware together with a two-handled silver tray, with large wood travelling boxFrancis Higgins & Son Ltd, London 1911 All pieces engraved with the same crest, comprising:thirty table forks,eighteen table spoons,twenty-three dessert forks,twenty-three dessert spoons,eighteen fruit forks, with filled handles,eight fruit knives, with silver blades and with filled handles,twelve fish forks, with filled handles,twelve fish knives, with silver blades and with filled handles,twenty-one teaspoons,a soup ladle,twenty-four table knives, with steel blades, stamped S J PHILLIPS 119 NEW BOND STtwelve dessert knives, with steel blades, also stampedTogether with a large silver two-handled presentation tray, Atkin Brothers, Sheffield 1910,rectangular with shell and acanthus embellished gadroon border and handles, the centre engraved 'PRESENTED TO MEYER NISSIM ON THE OCCASION OF HIS MARRIAGE 24th January 1912 BY THE BOMBAY OFFICE STAFF OF MESSRS DAVID SASSOON & CO LTD'all contained in a large wood travelling box, with two fitted lift-out trays, length of box 81.5cm, length of tray handle to handle 76cm, weight weight of weighable silver 269oz, weight of tray 137oz.Footnotes:Provenance By family descent to the present owner.Meyer Nissim, M.A. J.P. was a Jew of Baghdadi origin, and a descendant of the Sassoon family ('the Rothschilds of the East'). He was the great-grandson of Albert Abdullah Sassoon.He was born in 1882. A successful businessman, Nissim had been general manager of David Sassoon and Company for many years. After 1915, for more than 25 years, he was also an honorary magistrate and member of the Bombay Municipal Corporation, and from 1916-17 President of the Bank of Bombay.In 1924 The Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha was established by Dr Bimrao Ambedkar to improve the conditions of the Untouchable cast (Dalits) in society, and Meyer Nissim was made vice-president. In 1929 he became Mayor of Bombay and was re-elected for a three year term in 1939. From 1931-32 he was the Chairman of the City of Bombay Improvement Trust and also treasurer of the Port of Bombay.He married Flo Howard in 1912, and died in 1959 at the age of 77.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
