{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O73852"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O73852/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BB6078/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BB6078/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BB6078","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BB6082","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O73852/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O73852","accessionNumber":"M.4-1998","objectType":"Tray","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Gerald Benney started his own workshop on graduating from the RCA in 1955 and by 1957 was already appointed as a consultant designer to Viners of Sheffield, a major producer of base metal hollow ware and flat ware which at its zenith, in the late 1960s, employed over a thousand workers.  Benney relies on strong geometric forms which in the 1950s incorporated an increasing use of attenuated shapes and showed some degree of Scandinavian influence.  From the early 1960s, there was a return to a more formal, geometric and symmetrical element in his work which has usually been enriched by a textured surface and occasionally, deep, lustrous enamel.  His enamel work developed from the experience passed on to him by Berger Beigersen, the master enameller from the now extinct firm of Burch Korrodi of Zurich.  He first discovered the appeal of the textured surface in 1956 as a result of a workshop accident and since the 1960s, it has become very much a trademark of his work.  It is interesting to compare a Martini jug and six tankards designed by Benney and produced in pewter by Viners in 1958 which also uses a soft textured decoration as its main decorative element, thus illustrating that the craft of silversmithing had a direct and interdependent relationship with his activities as an industrial designer. The value of this relationship has been strongly stressed by his contemporary, Robert Welch who has equally successfully worked in both disciplines throughout his career and wrote in his book Hand and Machine (London 1985) “that each area can enrich each other to very important degree.”","physicalDescription":"The tray, a circular sheet of dark blue/grey tinted glass, clamped in a rim of pewter strip which reduces to the thickness of the glass at two sections, diametrically opposite each other.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Benney, Gerald CBE RDI","id":"A7486"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"AAT25190"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Royal Selangor International SDN BHD","id":"C323"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"glass","id":"AAT10797"},{"text":"pewter","id":"AAT10979"}],"techniques":[{"text":"forging","id":"AAT54033"},{"text":"soldering","id":"AAT53949"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Lead free pewter (95% pure tin, 3% copper, 2% antimony),  forged as a strip which is then curved, soldered and braised to encircle a circular section of blue/grey tinted glass, brightly polished pewter surface","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Tea, Coffee & Chocolate wares","id":"THES48886"},{"text":"Tableware & cutlery","id":"THES48888"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2006BB6078","2006BB6082"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"007","id":"THES405639"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Tray","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Kuala Lumpur","id":"x35872"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1986","earliest":"1986-01-01","latest":"1986-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"1996","earliest":"1996-01-01","latest":"1996-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"M.1-1998","id":"O73847"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"M.2-1998","id":"O73849"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"M.3:1-1998","id":"O73851"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"M.3:2-1998","id":"O73851"},"association":"Set"}],"creditLine":"Given by Royal Selangor International","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"2.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"25.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'ROYAL SELANGOR MCMXCVI AGB'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"stamped","position":"Stamped on the outside of the body, just beneath the rim in separate lozenges; the text stands for Royal Selangor, 1996, Adrian Gerald Benney","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Stamped on the outside of the body, just beneath the rim in separate lozenges; the text stands for Royal Selangor, 1996, Adrian Gerald Benney; stamped"}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Tray for a tea service, pewter and tinted glass, Malaysia, made by Royal Selangor, 1996, designed by Gerald Benney, 1986","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"M. Coatts (ed.), <font -u>Gerald Benney, E. Turner, Pioneers of Modern Craft</font -u>, Manchester 1997, pp. 107-117"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"G. Hughes, <font -u>Gerald Benney, Goldsmith, the story of fifty years at the bench</font -u>,  Alfriston, Starcity Ltd, 1998, p. 153"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"E. Turner, <font -i>Art Nouveau and Twentieth Century Pewter</font -i> in  A. North, <font -u>Pewter at the Victoria and Albert Museum</font -u>, London. V&A, p.185-290"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["M.4-1998"],"accessionNumberNum":"4","accessionNumberPrefix":"M","accessionYear":1998,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-10","recordCreationDate":"2003-02-05","availableToBook":true}}