Silver & Silverplate

 
Silver and Silverplate
 
 
Ever since it was discovered silver, like gold has been converted into gleaming artefacts of great splendour and beauty. Such symbols of wealth and power are collected not only for their superb workmanship, but smaller more ornate pieces also have a unique attraction. This is in part because silver has always been a precious metal. The intrinsic value of silver has had one undesirable effect, silver objects have long been regarded as recyclable and thousands of pieces have been lost over the centuries, melted down to finance wars, to cover up theft, or simply to make something more fashionable.
 
 
 
 
 

Close Plate

  • Time To Read: approximately 1 minute 44 seconds
 
 Close Plate Snuffer & TrayClose plating was a craft in which a thin layer of silver was applied to an article made of a base metal, most often iron or steel. Birmingham was the centre of the close plating industry in Britain. 
 
The object was first smoothed and thoroughly cleaned. It was them heated in a charcoal fire and afterwards submerged into first a solution of salt-ammoniac and then into a molten tin. This completed the fusion of the steel and tin and the item was allowed to cool.
 

Apostle Spoons

  • Time To Read: approximately 2 minute 5 seconds
 
Set Of 13 Apostle SpoonsSilver spoons with fig shaped bowls and handles topped by figures of apostles, or in the case of the master spoon of a set of thirteen, by the figure of Christ. A number of full length figures of the Virgin Mary are also known. Popular in Britain, Germany and else where from about 1490 to 1675,they became collectable in Victorian times and have been faked, forged and reproduced ever since. No complete sets of 13 are known to remain from before the 1500's.
 

Niello

  • Time To Read: approximately 6 minutes 30 seconds
 
Niello Decorated Silver Pocket WatchThe name Niello is derived from Latin: Nigellus meaning “blackened”. It is a metallic alloy with sulphur which is used as a surface decoration technique which, much like enamel , is fused to a metal base. The lustre of niello, however, is metallic instead of vitreous and it is much tougher than enamel. Niello comes in just one colour – black of various tones – which contrasts highly with silver the most popular base for niello work.
 

Silver Coffee & Chocolate Pots

  • Time To Read: approximately 34 seconds
 

Silver  Coffee and Chocolate PotTea, coffee and chocolate became popular in Britain in the first half the 1700's.
 

Silver Tea Pots

  • Time To Read: approximately 1 minute 10 seconds
 
Silver TeapotTea was introduced into Europe from China with the expansion of trade in the 1600’s and was a great novelty to people used to drinking only beer, wine and posset - milk curdled with wine, ale or vinegar.
 
At first tea was advertised as medicinal and was supposed to cure everything from gout to various social diseases.
 

Faberge 007 Egg

  • Time To Read: approximately 2 minutes 39 seconds
 

Fabergé & 007

 
Faberge 007 EggSome would say it was inevitable, but now it is actually happening. Two of the world’s most revered cultural icons, Fabergé and James Bond, unite in a year where they both celebrate milestone anniversaries. Fabergé, the world’s most iconic artist jeweller, is delighted to announce that it will create a unique and captivating Fabergé x 007 Egg Objet, commemorating Fabergé's 180th anniversary and the 60th anniversary of the first James Bond film, Dr. No, which was released on 5th October 1962.
 

Subcategories

 
Silverplate
 
In the 1830’s George Richard Elkington and his brother Henry Elkington patented the process for electroplating silver and by the 1840’s had perfected the techniques which were to make them famous. Electroplate or silverplate was a completely different process from Sheffield plate. Instead of fusing two or three pieces of metal together, the process used electricity to deposit pure silver onto a base metal. Various base metals were used but “nickel silver,” an alloy of copper, zinc and nickel, proved to be the best for electroplating.
 
 
 
 
Sterling SilverSilver in its natural state is 99% pure and is too soft and malleable to be used effectively for any practical purposes. It is alloyed with copper or zinc to toughen it up. Sterling Silver is 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% copper. It melts at 894 degrees Centigrade. Sterling Silver is one of the most popular metals in the jewellery trade, and people with allergies to other metals can safely use this metal. A multi-faceted metal, it is used extensively for coins, utensils, storage containers, jewellery and other decorative pieces.
 
 
FabergeWriting about Faberge is as close as I will come to this famous and well known Russian silversmith since all the pieces are unfortunately outside of my financial reach.
 
Peter Charles Faberge was born in Russia, in St. Petersburg on May, 30th, 1846. His father Gustav, of Huguenot extraction, was an unassuming jeweller who had been independently active since 1841. In 1860, Carl Faberge accompanied his parents on their move to Dresden. From there his father sent him on a tour of Europe, with stops in Frankfurt, Florence, and Paris. Back in St. Petersburg by 1866 as a full-fledged master, Carl joined Hiskias Pendin, August Holmstrom, and Wilhelm Reimer, all of whom had been employed by his father. In 1868 a Finnish goldsmith, Erik Kollin, was attached to the firm. Four years later Carl Faberge took over his father's workshop, with Kollin as his first head workmaster.

In 1882, Agathon Faberge joined his brother Carl in St. Petersburg and worked with him for over ten years. This period was to be the richest and most creative in Faberge's oeuvre, with the quality of objects produced remaining unsurpassed.
 
Most of the Faberge themes (the Imperial Easter eggs, animals, flowers, and objects of vertu in hard stones or precious metals) were introduced during this period and under the direction of the head workmaster, Mikhail Perkhin (1886-1903). By the 1890's Faberge had outstripped his competitors in the field of objects and silver and important commissions were undertaken for the Coronation festivities of 1896. Trips made by the Imperial Family to Denmark and to London were a source of excellent business for Faberge, since many of their presents came from his workshops.