O-2012

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bowl (commemorative)

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Presentation Bowl 1967

Commemorative bowl

This centennial presentation bowl was given to Canada in 1967 by London’s Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Created by master goldsmith Stuart Devlin, it is in fact a pair of nested bowls. The outer bowl is made of sterling silver and bears an inscription commemorating Canada’s centennial. The inner bowl is made of gilded sterling, with 100 maple leaves decorating the rim and showcasing Devlin’s talent for innovative filigree work. Devlin considered the bowl to be one of his finest early pieces and, in 1983, the Goldsmiths’ Company included it in a retrospective exhibit of his work.

Stuart Devlin / The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

Stuart Devlin was born in Australia in 1931. A gifted metalworker specializing in gold and silver, he won a 1964 competition to design Australia’s new decimal-system coinage. He emigrated to England and opened a workshop in London in 1965. In 1982 he was granted membership in the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and went on to serve as the Company’s Prime Warden in the mid-1990s. He later worked with the guild to develop a new training institute for goldsmiths. Devlin suffered a stroke in 2014 and died four years later in England.

London’s Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths received its first royal charter in 1327, with authority over provincial guilds and the right to enforce product standards. In 1363, all gold- and silversmiths in Britain were required to identify their work with a unique maker’s mark, and by the end of the 15th century, the Company was regularly inspecting products at its “assay office” in Goldsmiths’ Hall. Its mark confirming an object’s quality came to be known as a hallmark. To this day the Company maintains an office where items made of precious metals (now including platinum and palladium) are tested for purity.