A PAIR OF SWISS SILVER-GILT MOUNTED ROCK CRYSTAL TAZZAS, RETAILED BY ASPREY, LATE 20TH CENTURY

Asprey's art department looked no further than the masterpieces of Napoleonic goldmiths' work for the inspiration in designing these opulent tazzas. Cleverly mixing elements from such masterpieces as Martin-Guillaume Biennais's extensive silver-gilt service made in the 1790s for Napoleon's sister, Pauline Borghese, Princess of Sulmona, Asprey has created a pair of classic ornaments fit for any banqueting spread or buffet. The sumptuous inclusion of rock crystal in the scheme is inspired: it is both eye-catching and quietly exotic.

Asprey, a firm at the heart of the London luxury goods trades for nearly two centuries, emerged successfully after the difficulties of the 1940s to all but dominate the market. For the sheer scope of its enterprise, Asprey's only serious rival was Garrard & Co. Ltd., the then Crown Jewellers. In the 1950s, Algernon Asprey (1912-1991), a grandson of Charles Asprey (1813-1892), who had been head of the firm at the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851, was a working partner, producing designs for silver, gold and leatherwork. He also developed a thriving trade in the Middle East; in 1961 he flew with colleagues and two-and-a-half tons of stock to Teheran for an exhibition, initially displayed at a private view for the Shah. Among the most precious pieces were a gold and mother of pearl cigarette box which had taken a year to make, multi-coloured leather goods, vanity bags, jewellery and gold and silver candelabra.

Although in 1972 Mr. Asprey left to open his own establishment in Bruton Street, the original house of Asprey in Bond Street went from strength to strength. Then, following the oil crisis at the end of 1973, the spending power of Asprey's Middle Eastern customers multiplied. The next twenty years or so were a golden age of extravagance and no design was too fanciful not to leave the artist's drawing board to be realised in all its finest detail in the firm's various factories and workshops. Asprey's windows at that time were full of arresting objects, from a table lamp whose stem was formed as a gold-mounted nephrite frog riding a penny-farthing to an enormous model of an eagle in full flight, its wings composed of amethyst geodes. In 1984, not to be outdone by anything else on offer, Asprey unveiled a life size model of leaping Bengal tiger in parcel-gilt silver with snout and eyes set with 257 diamonds.

The contents of the showroom of the Geneva branch of Asprey, at 40 rue du Rhône, which opened in the mid 1970s, were similarly impressive. In addition to watches and jewellery, gold and silver-mounted hardstones were favourite materials, whether used for traditional designs with a modern twist like these tazzas or for something more unfamiliar and impressive.