A silver and enamel compote, 1902

Born in the suburbs of London, Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942) attended Wellington College before reading History at King's College, Cambridge from 1883 to 1886 while studying under the architect George Frederick Bodley. Upon his return to London, Ashbee helped to establish the Guild and School of Handicraft in 1888, which became one of the most important Arts and Crafts workshops of the period. Though the Guild and School of Handicraft closed in 1895, it was relocated to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds in 1902 where it continued to flourish until 1907. In both locations, the guild functioned as an experimental socialist society, educating craftspeople while producing works in jewelry, enamels, and metalwork. Ashbee himself designed a number of works for the guild, such as the present lot, while also working as a celebrated architect and designer throughout England and Europe.