By Ben Marks — Right now, “tariff” is a dirty word, as American farmers, manufacturers, workers, and consumers are being asked to pay for a trade war with China—as we went to press, tariffs on goods imported from Mexico were also being threatened. But in 1842, tariffs on imported silver products, along with a slew of other goods, worked out pretty well for U.S. manufacturers of silver hollowware and flatware. The reason was the duties imposed on all those non-silver imported goods, iron foremost among...

Saving Vermont History, One Silver Spoon At a Time

By Ben Marks and Joanna Mangan — Compared to their Colonial neighbors, Vermont silversmiths got a late start. That’s because the first permanent non-Native American settlement in Vermont (Bennington) was not established until 1761, about 140 years after Europeans settled the surrounding areas. Prior to the founding of Bennington, Vermont was the home and hunting ground of the Abenaki, as well as a buffer zone between the French in Canada to the north and the English governing their Colonies to the south. Despite this...

Janine Skerry Shows Off the Silver Collection at Colonial Williamsburg

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 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...