By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn — My interest in silver started when I was a child. One of my earliest memories was opening either my mother or father’s jewelry box and using a magnifying glass to look at all the little marks on the pieces inside. There were also a few pieces of metalwork in our family: a copper coffeepot and a small silver saucepan. My great, great, great grandfather in Sweden made the coffeepot, and my grandfather made the little silver saucepan. He passed away when I was 7. It intrigued me that people...

English Standing Cups

By Edward Wenham — With whom you share a cup, with him share your friendship — that is in brief the tradition of the standing-cup. Raising a glass to honor a distinguished guest at dinner; the "Here's how!" or similar salutation when two or three foregather on holidays; the now almost forgotten custom of passing round a quart pot of ale in the taproom of a wayside inn: each symbolizes the ancient ceremony of the standing-cup which is still observed at banquets in the halls of London City Livery...

The Kalo Shop, a Mecca for Arts and Crafts Sterling Silver

By Maribeth Keane — How did I get started collecting Arts and Crafts silver? My wife and I had been collecting Arts and Crafts items as far back as I can remember, mostly furniture and tiles. One day many years ago I got bit by the silver bug. We lived in California and I’d visit antique dealers and one of them showed me a silver serving spoon by Chicago silver maker Falick Novick. It was beautifully made, the shape was great and it had little marks all over it, which I soon learned are called planishing or...