A copper charger with repousse decoration and motto attributed to the Newton School of Metal Work, circa 1910.

A very well worked charger with repousse decoration and scalloped edge. The centre is decorated with a design of poppies and leaves. The motto is actually a line from a poem by Robert Burns called Tam O’Shanter.

“But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, it’s bloom is shed; Or, like the snow-fall in the river, A moment white, then melts forever.”

I am attributing this to the Newton School as I have an image of an exhibition of theirs, most likely the Home Arts and Industries Exhibition, and you can just make out a similar charger (image included). The back of the piece is also signed. I knew that there was a documented worker called John Day in 1903. He had a brother called Lawford Day who was 17 years of age in 1911. Both men were farm labourers in Newton, Cambridgeshire, and would have attended the winter evening classes.