Silversmiths 2D

Play with your food! Create a design to be engraved, chased or photo-etched onto a sterling silver underplate that encourages diners to engage in playful conversations at the dinner table.

In October 1991, the Silver Trust and The Daily Telegraph held a nationwide competition to design seventy-two individually decorated silver underplates as “perfect conversation pieces for the Prime Minister’s guests” at 10 Downing Street. With no restrictions on theme or subject matter, designs submitted ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, spanned students, amateurs and professionals, and showcased the diversity of the UK’s creativity, talent, and its (unexpected) passion for plates!

From the 500 entries submitted, the panel of judges selected seventy-two unique designs that were then engraved, chased, or photo-etched onto blank plates spun from sterling silver, before being presented to Prime Minister John Major in 1993.

Designs include tributes to the four nations, celebrations of the natural world, creativity, science and technology, references to astrological charts and ancient illustrations – and even a tribute to a Downing Street Cat!

Andrew Marsden’s design, which could be seen as a direct challenge to ‘not playing with your food,’ is uniquely mischievous, playful and filled with humour. Featuring a fully functional maze, the 26.5cm plate encourages diners to ignore dining table etiquette, and navigate a pea through raised silver borders, to an artfully engraved pea pod at the plate’s centre.

Andrew’s design has provided the inspiration for this year’s London Assay Office GC&DC brief, where we are challenging creative people of all ages and skill levels to submit a design that can be engraved, chased or photo-etched onto a 25cm diameter sterling silver underplate that encourage diners to engage in conversations, activities, or games that bring fun, mischief and humour to the most formal of dinner tables.

•  Imaginative and creative outcomes, showing innovation and aesthetic appeal

• Processes and methods of decorative treatments 

• Highest standards of presentation and visual communication, including inspiration source and design development, leading to the final design

• Appropriate inclusion of all details as laid out in the brief 

• Designs are to be presented on one side only and mounted on card, foam board or equivalent backing board

• Design submissions – one A1 Board (maximum)

• Entries should include a 1.1 scaled design using the template provided (A3)

• Designs can be created by hand, digitally using CAD/Illustrator, or as a combination of the two

• Your submission must include a name for your design, and a typed description that explains how your design meets the brief

• Names should only be visible on the back of the entry 

The Silver Trust’s underplates have sparked conversation, delighted diners, and championed British skill and creativity in the highest office of the land for more than 30 years. In this spirit, the London Assay Office (pending approval) intends to select up to four winning designs to be manufactured at its expense. These will be the first pieces hallmarked at the London Assay Office in 2027 and gifted to the Goldsmiths’ Company in celebration of its 700th anniversary.

Key points of consideration are:

• Originality and aesthetic appeal

• The highest standards of visual communication and presentation are required to communicate your design well and accurately

• Learn more about the Silver Trust’s 72 underplates: https://www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk/collection-news/perfect-conversation-pieces-the-silver-trusts-contemporary-british-underplates-make-the-table-at-10-downing-street