George V Silver Punchbowl with Oak Bowling Challenge Cup

• Sterling Silver - Sterling silver is a mixture of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% of another metal, usually copper. Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver, and is relatively soft and the addition of the very small amount of copper gives the metal enough strength and hardness to be worked into jewellery, decorative and household objects.
• Lion Mask - The lion mask has been used for centuries in various forms of art and design, including furniture, silver, and ceramics, and is usually y depicted as a stylized representation of the face of a lion, often with an open mouth and protruding tongue. and is often used as a handle, knob, or other decorative element.
  
  In furniture design, lion masks were popular in the neoclassical and Empire styles of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They were often used as decorative elements on the legs or arms of chairs, as well as on cabinet and drawer pulls. It was also used as a handle, knob, or other decorative element.
  
  In silverware design, lion masks were often applied to tea and coffee pots, as well as on candlesticks, snuff boxes, and other small silver items. The lion mask was often used in combination with other neoclassical motifs, such as laurel wreaths or acanthus leaves, to create a sense of grandeur and classical elegance.
  
  In ceramics, lion masks were often depicted in relief, and were sometimes used in combination with other decorative elements, such as garlands or swags.
  
  

• Oak - Native to Europe and England, oak has been used for joinery, furniture and building since the beginning of the medieval civilisation. It is a pale yellow in colour when freshly cut and darkens with age to a mid brown colour.
  
  Oak as a furniture timber was superceded by walnut in the 17th century, and in the 18th century by mahogany,
  
  Semi-fossilised bog oak is black in colour, and is found in peat bogs where the trees have fallen and been preserved from decay by the bog. It is used for jewellery and small carved trinkets.
  
  Pollard oak is taken from an oak that has been regularly pollarded, that is the upper branches have been removed at the top of the trunk, result that new branches would appear, and over time the top would become ball-like. . When harvested and sawn, the timber displays a continuous surface of knotty circles. The timber was scarce and expensive and was used in more expensive pieces of furniture in the Regency and Victorian periods.
• George V - George V (1865 ? 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 1910 until his death in 1936.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• cups, with handles - silver items 116
• mugs, two handles - silver items 121
• Walker & Hall (England) - silver, maker or retailer 319