The history of silver

The history of silver is as old as the history of man. It speaks in the Bible of "Joseph, who was rich in silver, gold, and oxen". In the pre-Christian era, in certain civilizations, silver was considered more precious than gold. To the early Egyptians, silver had a religious significance and was used profusely in articles of worship.

Silver can be hammered into sheets so thin that it would take 100,000 of them to stack an inch high.

It can be drawn into a wire finer than a human hair.

It is this ductility (or ability to be formed) that makes silver the wonderful art form that it is.

Silver can be shaped by hammering, spinning, or drawing - it can be decorated with etching, chasing, or engraving - sterling silver is the queen of metals. There is no substitute.

Through the centuries, the silversmith or goldsmith has, by a process of elimination, become the most highly skilled craftsman in the world today.

In every generation the "Master Smith" would select from his apprentices those best qualified for training necessary to make a jeweler or silversmith. The less skilled craftsmen stayed in the "minor leagues" and became blacksmiths or bronze workers.

As only the finest craftsman in each generation became master gold and silversmiths, this evolution through the centuries, created a tradition of excellence in both artistry and craftsmanship which is found only in the silver field.

Silver, as we know it today, dates from the 16th and 17th Century. Prior to that time silver was available only to the extremely wealthy nobility - or to the church.

During the 17th Century there arose a new wealthy merchant class.

The fortunes of these traders was founded on the sailing ship. As a sea captain returned from a voyage, with the tremendous profits made, he could purchase a second vessel. By repeating this procedure, the sea captain became a merchant prince with a fleet of vessels at his command.

These men built great estates and furnished them with all available luxuries. We find a tremendous amount of nautical derivation in the decorations, carvings, and silver of these homes.

The "Gadroon" motif so prevalent in Georgian silver is obviously derived from a rope which was a decorative treatment used on the crude wooden tables and chairs which a sea captain might have. When the time came that his wealth permitted him to have furniture made especially for himself, he oftentimes had the rope or "Gadroon" border carved into the furniture. Later, when silver was made to adorn his tables, the same rope motif was used.

The "Shell" motif found in George III items and later, is also derived from the sea, to way nothing of the "Dolphin" which was used profusely for spouts, handles, finials, and feet on various decorative pieces.

Prior to the 18th Century, silver was found primarily in the homes of the nobles or in the possession of churches in the form of chalices, crosses and altar appointments. At that time, most silversmiths were subsidized by either one of the royal households or by some local Bishop. The new wealthy middle-class permitted a number of silversmiths to support themselves as independent craftsman. In the early 1700's, the social revolution and the economic development on which it was based, made the silver craftsman an important man in his town.

In the baronial castle there was a "great standing salt" or "the ceremonial salt".

This "ceremonial salt" was placed on the great "T-shaped table" in the banquet hall in such a way that the nobility sat at the head of the table with the Lord and Master, while the first cousins, second cousins, third cousins, etc., dwindling away down the table to a point of demarcation which set apart the landed gentry from the common serfs. The "salt" was passed from here up the table, and if you sat below the salt you were not only "not worth your salt" but you didn’t get any.

The expression "upper crust" comes from this same era in which the great crusted meat pies were served from the top of the table on down, and obviously the "gentry" got first choice of the crisp, flaky upper crust, and those at the foot of the table were more apt to get the soggy under crust.

Salts and peppers still have social significance and have become one of the more popular wedding presents, as in presenting a pair of sterling salts and peppers you are saying "the finest people have silver salts and peppers on their tables - you are worthy of your salt".

Jack Shepherd was not a famous early English silversmith as is sometimes supposed, but rather was a bandit and highwayman who was hanged when he was 21 years old.

Jack Shepherd was apprentice to a cabinet maker, and until he was 17 years old, he was a model youth. At that time, he either took to drink or was disappointed in love. In any event, from that time on he became one of the most notorious highwaymen in England. His greatest fame, however, was that he was a notorious escape artist. While captured on several occasions, he always made good his escape and was known as "the runaway" Jack Shepherd.

At this very time, (about 1701) footed silver came into vogue - both in gravy boats, salts and peppers, bowls, coffee pots, etc. Folks jokingly said that they had legs so they could run away like Jack Shepherd. This name has stuck to this very day.

Another illustration of interesting history behind modern design is in the long-handled pitcher spoons which we sell today for stirring lemonade in a pitcher. These "pitcher spoons" go back to early Elizabethan days when the long-handled spoons were necessary to reach the mouth as the hand had to be extended out around the great starched ruffles worn around the neck. A long-handled spoon was necessary in order to get food to the mouth without damaging your ruffles.

It is interesting to note how tradition has influenced design in the tea service.

The coffee pot is taller than the teapot. The reason behind this is that the coffee pot was derived from the early English tankard. The old pewter or silver tankard, which was found in most middle-class and better homes, was often of several quart capacity and was not necessarily reserved for a single person’s use. In most modest homes a single tankard served all the men at the table.

When coffee was first introduced into England by the traders returning from Central and South America, there was no vessel in the home from which it could normally be served. It was therefore served from a tankard, but it is easy to understand how this made for difficulty pouring.

The first converted tankards had a round pipe inserted into a hole low in the tankard body which was bent up in an "S" shape on what we would consider the near side for a right handed person.

This was fine for a right handed person, but if you were left handed, it’s easy to understand how you had to pour backwards. For this reason, the spout was moved around opposite the handle, and this became the first coffee pot.

Unlike the coffee pot, the average teapot was based on "ball shaped" teapots which were brought back from India and China by the early traders such as Marco Polo and those who followed him.

Many a crusader brought back tea after his years in the East and, of course, a china pot in which to brew it.

The first silver teapots were fashioned after these low round china pots.

With the two entirely different sources of origin, the coffee pot deriving from the tankard and the teapot from the round china pot, we can see how, over a period of years, the tankard has come down in proportion and the teapot has evolved upwards, until today on some of the more commercial services it is sometimes only a matter of a halt an inch in height which differentiates between the two.

Prior to 1847, only the wealthy were able to afford table silver. The story goes that Sheffield was discovered by a silversmith named Bulsover who worked in Sheffield in the middle 1700's. In mending a buckle he had occasion to place a piece of copper behind a piece of sterling silver in order to reinforce a break, and when it was red hot he had occasion to tighten the vise which fused the two red hot metals together.

This fused plate, which we can liken to a sandwich of one slice of white and sone slice of rye bread, obviously only used approximately one-half the amount of silver that a piece would made of silver through and through. At first silver was fused to only one side; later it was fused to both sides of the copper.

This Sheffield plate opened a whole new market for silver with people who had the desire but not the pocketbooks for fine sterling. This ware was made for about 100 years until replaced by electro-plate. Little true Sheffield exists outside museums.

The date 1847 stands as a landmark in the silver industry. The Rogers Bros., (William, Asa and Simeon) whose names are synonymous with fine silverplate, not only had spent several years in experimenting and in preparing for the making of silverplate but for many years, previous to any knowledge of electro-plating, they had acquired a vast amount of experience in the making of coin silver such as spoons and forks . . . an experience that was to have a tremendous influence in assuring success for this new industry.

Articles of sterling silver are solid silver through and through. Sterling is 925 parts out of a thousand pure. We have a federal law which requires that all silver stamped "sterling" must be 925 parts of pure silver in every thousand parts of metal. The additional 75 parts out of a thousand are to add stiffness and durability as pure silver is quite soft.

The word "sterling" has been used to mean high-quality silver since the 1200's. At that time, the coins of England had decreased in value and contained only a little silver.

The only European coins that contained large proportions of silver, were those made by the merchants of the Hanseatic League, a group of trading cities in Northern Germany.

These coins were called "Easterlings" to distinguish them from the low-silver alloy coins of England.

English speech contracted "Easterling" to "Sterling".

There is one other type of silver with which many of you will be familiar . . . coin silver.

Fine old coin silver spoons were actually hammered from individual coins prior to that time in colonial days when silver was mined in the American colonies. In the early days, you actually took a bag of coins to the silversmith and rather than melt and roll out fresh metal he merely started hammering from the coins. Many of these spoons were made from two separate coins, one for the bowl and the other from the handle, and it is possible to see on the back that two pieces were actually joined together.

While this joining was originally merely functional, in time it was elaborated to what we now know in antique silver as the "rat tail" design, which is a graceful tapering of the handle on the back of the spoon.

Sterling tableware is divided into two categories called flatware and hollowware.

Flatware is the "knife, fork, and spoon" category of silver as hollowware means the bowls, dishes, candlesticks, etc.

Sterling is the most hygienic metal known to man. It has actual germ killing properties. It is also the most durable art form and the most economical purchase that can be made for the home. Sterling silver grows more beautiful with the passing years, never wears out, and can be passed along as part of a heritage that grows stronger with passing generations.