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...

The Four Georges: Notes on English Domestic Silver

By Kurt M. Semon — Possession of silver articles has always been considered as a step up on the social ladder; something to be proud of and something to bolster self-respect. Even today we see people, making more money and making it faster than ever before, acquiring silver objects of all kinds. The market seems to be definitely a seller's market. Probably in no other country has so much fine silverware been produced as in England, and nowhere has the collecting of it been keener and its use more...

Huguenot Silversmiths, The Courtaulds

By Edward Wenham — Names may be merely a group of letters and as such have but little meaning. If for the sake of entertainment we turned the pages of any large directory we might discover that certain names left some of us cold while touching in others a warm glow. Patriots, for example, would be touched by names recalling men associated with the history of a country, while we collectors would be touched by names recalling the artists and fine old craftsmen whose work we seek so eagerly today. Among...

The Women Silversmiths of England

By Thomas Hamilton Ormsbee — Until fairly recently, England was a man's country and women as a class enjoyed few rights that their husbands and male relatives could not invade. Only a queen occupying the throne in her own right was free of this domination. Otherwise, law and custom gave men control of all property and rendered them superior beings to be obeyed by their women folk without question. [caption id="attachment_4661" align="alignright" width="300" caption=" Such was the law. In actual practice, even before...

Silver Plate of Georgian England

By Alice Hoyt Coutant — For the average collector of old English silver the period of greatest interest lies between the years 1714 and 1830. During this Georgian period, so called because of the successive reigns of George I, II, III, and IV, the art of the silversmith achieved real greatness both as regards beauty of design and excellence of execution. Consequently it is not only well worth collecting but there are still plenty of fine specimens to be had today at reasonable prices. In order to see this...

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...