Alhambra Table Fountain is a centrepiece in the form of a Moorish pavillion having a domed roof decorated with champleve enamelling and resting on a leafy base. The piece is in the style of the Alhambra, Granada, and is intended to represent a shrine covering a water-hole. On the base and encircling the edifice are figures in-the-round of three Arab horses that had been presented to Queen Victoria, and of their Arabian attendant, and nearby a African boy with a dog.
Lower on the base are two flamingos, a vulture, and plants indigenous to Arabia. A fountain in the pavilion spurts scented rosewater. Hence the piece is sometimes called ’The Fountain Temple’. It was designed (stated by J.B. Waring) by Edward Lorenzo Percy under the direction of Prince Albert, and Edmund Cotterill modelled the horses. It was made by Robert Garrard II for R. & S. Garrard & Co., 1852-3. It was shown at the Dublin Industrial Exhibition in 1853, the London International Exhibition of 1862, and the Victoria and Albert Museum Centenary Exhibition of 1962; it is now in the Royal Collection.
Sources
Newman, H. (2000). An illustrated dictionary of silverware. Thames & Hudson.
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Cassone – the marriage chest
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