Casgliadau Arlein

Oval basket, silver, standing on four applied cast scroll and bearded-mask feet linked by applied scrolls, foliage and female masks cast in sections, raised bowl with slightly convex bottom and sides curving out sharply to a broad flat rim, central swing handle hinged on opposite sides, its arched central section supported by scrolled male chinoiserie caryatid figures; the sides elaborately pierced with a design of trellis pattern, scrolls, foliage and anthemions, the rim decorated with an applied cast and chased border of scrolls, flowers, shell motifs and masks, the top edge of the handle cast with flowers, scrolls and a mask of Mercury. The bottom is thin where engraved arms have been removed and is now engraved with later (late 19th-century?) arms, apparently those of Seton, Earl of Winton (Scots).