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Item: Card Case Description: Houses of Parliament "Castle Top" Hallmark: Birmingham 1848 by William Dudley Dimensions: 106mm x 75mm rectangular; 81g weight Comments: A superb card case in perfect crisp condition. Please note the assortment of river craft on the Thames. The Houses of Parliament (also known as the Palace of Westminster) is the seat of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom - the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The building lies on the north bank of the River Thames in London, close to the government buildings in Whitehall. The palace contains around 1,100 rooms, 100 staircases and 5 kilometres (3 miles) of corridors. After a fire in 1834, the present Houses of Parliament (as shown in the scene on the card case) were built over the next 30 years. They were the work of the architect Sir Charles Barry (1795–1860) and his assistant Augustus Welby Pugin (1812–52). As the building was still being completed and was the show piece architectural feat of London at the time this item of silver was made, the card case would have been an ideal souvenir of a trip to London. Furthermore, you may be interested to know that this item was included in the "Antique Masters" TV show aired on BBC2 on August 9th 2010. The item was "the most expensive" in the specialist subject round.
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