Simply elegant pair of Art Deco silver vases by Docker & Burn, Birmingham 1921. Classic inverted baluster-form supported on a circular weighted foot. Faceted decahedral body and reeded rims. Nice gauge of silver. Hallmarked for the Birmingham assay office 1921 and for silversmiths Docker & Burn Ltd. The vases are 17.5 cm in height.
 
Docker & Burn Ltd of the Sterling Works, Barr Street in Birmingham, registered their first mark at the Birmingham assay office in September 1920. Initially successful, they subsequently opened their London showrooms at Audrey House, Ely Place in 1922. Based on the edge of Birmingham’s jewellery quarter, the business was established during the quarter’s peak in activity however, the Great Depression triggered a decline in demand which many companies struggled to recover from. Docker & Burn were only active between 1921 and 1930 – exhibiting at the 1922 and 1929 British Industry fairs with a wide range of silverware items listed from tea sets and condiment sets to cigar cases and vases. No information is available as to the company’s fate or why they only traded for such a brief period – perhaps a casualty of the sharp downturn in demand during the late 1920s.