The vinaigrette traces its evolution from the discovery of a new formula for a pungent and corrosive aromatic vinegar based on strong ascetic acid combined with such oils as lavender, cinnamon, cloves and camphor. Manufacture began towards the end of the eighteenth century and quickly developed into a prolific industry in Birmingham and London to service the fashion for this reviver and stimulant for gentlemen of position and their swooning ladies.
Although the first makers of vinaigrettes were modest craftsmen and most often specialists in all kinds of domestic trifles such as patch-boxes, caddy spoons and nutmeg-graters, their work reflected the decorative styles and themes popularised by the eighteenth century masters of decorative art. The finest examples are exquisitely made and survive as miniature testimonials to the high standard of craftsmanship, artistic qualities and patient care which characterised the more important work of English gold and silversmiths of the period.
The name Samuel Pemberton lives alongside that of Joseph Willmore and Matthew Linwood as one of the most significant of the early Birmingham makers, (Nathaniel Mills is reserved for a different discussion because of his particular association with ‘castle tops’), and in the history of silversmithing there were four Samuels. The first (1704-1784) was a ‘Jeweller and Toy Maker of Snow Hill’, although he was not registered at the Assay Office. He had a son, Samuel, who first entered his mark in 1773. This Samuel then had a son also Samuel born in 1771 who was described as a ‘Jeweller of Livery Street’ and who later took his son, the fourth Samuel, into partnership thus creating the firm of ‘Samuel Pemberton & Son of Snow Hill’
With the fascination of collecting being much about history and personalities as well as form, design and decoration, SHFA is pleased to offer a small collection of works bearing the name of Samuel Pemberton marked from 1797 to 1814 characteristic of their time and illustrating something of the early history of ‘a Georgian trifle of vanished use with Brummy roots’.
