The designs of the dessert stands in this lot appear to have been based on original artwork by Elkington & Co.'s chief designer, August Adolphe Willms (1827 - 12 September 1899). Early examples bear the Birmingham hallmarks for 1862 and may indeed have been added by Elkington's to their exhibit at the International Exhibition in London that year. Garnitures of this pattern proved very popular and many sets in silver, parcel-gilt silver, oxidised and electroplate were made until well into the 1880s. (Sotheby's, New York, 2 & 3 November 1989, lot 293)

At the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 Elkington's was the only English manufacturing silversmith to be represented. Among their exhibits were several similar dessert services, one of which was described as the 'Satyr Dessert Service' (see illustrations). These were described by a contemporary as, 'a magnificent dessert or table service of solid silver, consisting of a centre-piece, twenty-eight inches high, two smaller pieces of the same kind, four compotiers, and two salad stands – the whole forming an array fit for the table of a king, but destined, probably, to pass into the possession of one of those merchant princes who rival sovereigns in their wealth. The style and period of the design are indicated by the name given to it by M. Willms. When we say it is it called a ''Cellini service'' the reader familiar with decorative art will at once understand the character of the work: its union of natural and conventional forms in design, its variety, fancy, and richness of ornament, the free use of gilt to relieve and enrich the oxidised silver, and the elaborate ''chasing'' which covers the surface of the metal. The effect of the collects ed pieces is most impressive as regards the general mass of the forms, the freedom of curve and line, and the play of colour in the contrast of the gilding with the deadened silver. . . In this department of the exhibition, as well as in the more purely Art specimens. M. Willms has reason to be proud alike of his work, and of the admirable manner in which modellers and chasers alike have given expression to it.' (The Birmingham Daily Post, Birmingham, Tuesday, 22 February 1876, p. 6c/d)

'DEATH OF CHEVALIER WILLMS.

'Chevalier Auguste Willms, who has been art director of Messrs. Elkington's works in Birmingham for forty years, died yesterday in his seventy-third year. He was a native of Paris, but left France in 144, and came to London. Since 1857 [in succession to Pierre-Emile Jeannest (1813-1857)] he has been superintendent of the chielf productions of Elkington's firm. Out of the fifty-two unsigned competition drawings sent in for the International Volunteer Challenge Shield he secured the first three awards; and he collaborated with Mr. G.F. Watts, R.A., in designing the Elcho Shield and the beautiful trophy of gold and silver plate which the people of Wales presented to the Duke and Duchess of York as a wedding gift. One of the deceased's latest and most beautiful productions was the casket in which an address was presented to the Princess Christian when she opened the new General Hospital at Birmingham. He was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour for his services in connexion with the Paris Exhibition of 1878.' (The Westminster Gazette, London, Thursday, 14 September 1899, p. 4b)