Old Silver and Old Sheffield Plate Book

OLD SILVER and OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE A history of the silversmiths art in Great Britain and Ireland, with reproductions in facsimile of about thirteen thousand - marks. c Tables of date letters and other marks, c c American silversmiths and their marks. Paris marks and Paris date letters toith a description of the methods of marking employed by the Paris Guild of Sil c Ders 2. iths. Hallmarks, and date letters when used, of nearly all the countries of Continental Europe, reproduced in. facsimile, c o A history of Old Sheffield Plate and a description of the method of its production, with the names and marks, in facsimile, of every known ma er WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS By HOWARD PITCHER OKIE DOUBLE-DAY, DO RAN W COMPANY, INC. GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK, 1928 Ss X t t A LADY whose home is in Kentucky, but whose duties and responsibilities have made her name familiar throughout the United States., years ago perceived that in no other class of articles of domestic use were com bined utility and great beauty to the degree in which those qualities co-exist in the silver produced in England during the period that began with the accession of George I and ended during the Regency in the early Nine teenth Century. Her unerring taste and judg ment, as shown in her own magnificent collec tion, have made many converts to her belief. As an inadequate attempt to express the ob ligation we should all feel, and as a tribute of personal admiration, this volume is respectfully dedicated by its author to MRS. ALVIN T. H E R T 3 of Lexington and Washington FOREWORD THIS book has been written with the single purpose of enabling the reader to establish the origin and authenticity of antique silver and Old Sheffield plate. If I have gone rather at length into the history of the silver smiths art in England and the laws under which he worked, it is because I deemed it necessary for the purpose in view. Education in the directions indicated is essential to prevent self deception there is no danger of wilful misrepresentation by a reputable dealer. It has not been thought necessary to go into the methods em ployed in the production of solid silver. Sheffield plate must, however, be approached from a different angle. One who knows just how Old Sheffield rolled plate was made and will apply that knowledge to each piece he examines and will ask and answer the question that should always arise Was it possible to pro duce this article without the aid of electroplating will never, if of average intelligence, mistake electroplate for the older product. Dealers are deceived every day. This we must believe in view of the fact that a large quantity of electroplate is being marketed as Old Sheffield. If a wider knowledge is possessed by cus tomers, dealers will be compelled to educate themselves. Mr. Frederick Bradbury, of Sheffield, has written a book de scribing in the most minute detail every process used in the older art and illustrating every method and tool employed. Its writing afforded Mr. Bradbury pleasure, no doubt, and certainly he viii FOREWORD should feel proud of his work, evidencing as it does infinite labour and very great ability. But, Macaulay said no one but a commentator ever read all of Spensers Faerie Queene, and if the seven books of the poem had not been destroyed in Ireland, even a commentator would have baulked. Hence, I have written just enough to show even a non-indus trious reader that the raw material of a maker of Old Sheffield corresponding to the sheet of solid silver in the hands of the silver smith or of copper or nickel silver in the hands of the maker of plated ware presents a uniform colour only on the surface and never at a cross-section. The copper and silver were not amalga mated. They remained distinct but not separate. Kvery edge of a piece of Sheffield plate must at some time have shown white and red, or white and red and white. That edge had to be masked. How Never by electroplating it had not been invented...Read More