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Keith Murray for Mappin & Webb Art Deco silver plated cake stand

This is a very unusual Keith Murray for Mappin & Webb item, firstly because it is a cake stand and secondly because each of the "plates" has a hand beaten centre. The silver plated frame has 4 square tiered feet and a domed shouldered top. The 2 "plates" or shallow tazzas each sit in a round silver plated holder that is suspended within the frame by two silver plated bars. Each tazza has a wide outer ring with the 4 incised rings typical of Keith Murray/Mappin & Webb designs. The slightly concave centres and the undersides of those centres are hand beaten. The undersides of both tazzas are stamped "Triple Deposit Mappin & Webb Prince's Plate London & Sheffield" with a stylised teskilion mark and a shield shaped cartouche stamped with an"l" in lower case with "W28408" stamped below that and "M421" below that.

Approximate dimensions:
Total weight: 3lbs 95/8ozs - 1632gms
Height: 12.99ins - 33cms
Width of frame: 11.02ins - 28cms
Diameter of tazzas: 9.25ins - 23.5cms

Keith Day Pearce Murray was born in New Zealand but came to England when he was 14. He qualified as an architect but turned his hand to illustrating before becoming a full time designer. He worked on a freelance basis for the glass makers Steven & Williams and then for Wedgwood pottery and his designs in metal were created for Mappin & Webb. In 1936 he was appointed architect in charge of designing Wedgwood's new factory in Burlaston and he returned to architecture after the war.