Monumental English Sterling Centerpiece from 1894 Dedicated to Mayor of Cork, Ireland
Our monumental repousse sterling silver centerpiece in the baroque style, with central punch bowl and outer bowls, was commissioned by the city of Cork to honor Alderman Augustine Roche, Mayor of Cork 1893-1894. Produced by Horace Woodward and Co., Ltd., of London, England. Identified wtih the firm's quatrfoil shaped maker's mark, lion mark indicating sterling standard, leopard head for London, and the date mark of the letter T.
Measures approxinmately 40 by 12.5 by 20 inches and weighs approximately 242 troy ounces (265.5 oz, 7527 g).
Roche (1848-1915) was head of A. Roche and Co., a wine merchant 40 King Street, now Mac Curtain Street, in Cork. In addition to serving as Mayor of Cork, he also served as Justic of the Peace and Sheriff, and as Lord Mayor of Cork in 1904. For the final ten years of his life he served as a Member of Parliament.
The silver company for established in the middle part of the nineteenth century by George Cartwright and Joseph Hirons under the name Cartwright & Hirons. In 1853 Horace Woodward joined the firm and it was renamed Cartwright, Hirons and Woodward. In 1893 the firm was renamed Horace Woodward & Co. Ltd. and it was acquired by Adie Brothers Ltd. in 1919.
