Jewelry Pearls

In the early 15th century, solid silver was owned and used mainly by the nobility and people of great wealth, and did not come within the reach of the middle class family. All this was changed in 1742 when Thomas Boulsover, a cutler working in Sheffield, England, accidentally fused silver onto copper while repairing a broken knifeblade, Boulsover had unknowingly revolutionized the silver trade when he discovered that these two metals, silver and copper, became inseparable when heated. Recognizing the commercial value of his discovery, Boulsover began making articles that had the appearance of solid silver, yet were stronger and cheaper to produce. Now people of modest means could have replicas of solid silver at a fraction of the cost.

By the end of the 18th century, Sheffield silver was being made in quantity and became a leading industry in Britain and the town of Sheffield a manufacturing center of great importance.

In 1838, the Russians succeeded in creating a very fine method of electroplating silver; consequently, the older and slower process of Sheffield plating, discovered by Boulsover, died out.

Really old Sheffield articles are beautiful and extremely valuable.

If you own any real Sheffield and the pink of the copper begins to show through the silverplate, do not have the piece resilvered. Resilvering would be immediately apparent to a connoisseur and ruin the value of the piece.

Sterling means a silver alloy of standard quality which is 925 parts pure silver and 75 parts copper alloy.

The term undoubtedly originated with early English coins and may have derived from the word staer meaning a starling, because some of Edward the Confessor’s pennies bore figures offour birds. However, in the r 3th Century, King John brought coiners to England from the Netherlands and the Hanseatic cities to improve the quality of English coinage. These coiners were called Easterlings. Some authorities believe the term Sterling evolved when Easterling was contracted to Sterling.

Little is known of English silver-craft prior to r 660. At this period in history, English and French monarchs and nobility kept their wealth in silver or gold objets d’art, not only for their pleasure and use, but as bullion to be melted down as needed to finance wars. In France, during the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715), some forty ordinances and edicts were issued for the melting down of silver and gold articles, and though the reasons for the Royal edicts were varied, the tragic result was the almost total destruction of France’s finest silver and gold pieces. In England, so few pieces survived the austere rule of Oliver Cromwell (r653-r658) that the Coronation of Charles II had to be postponed to allow time for the designing and making of new silver regalia.

After the Restoration, with the return of Charles II to the throne, England’s silver-craft began to flourish; r 660 therefore, is considered an arbitrary date for the beginning of the production of England silver as we know it today. Monarchs and wealthy patrons began commissioning goldsmiths to design and produce silver chandeliers, sconces, mirror frames, platters, and tea services, even fui niture embellished with silver. It was the Silver Era! When sets of flatware came into style, invited guests were no longer required to bring their own knives and forks.

At the turn of the t Sth century, during the reign of George I in England (r 714-1 727), Paul de Lamerie, one of the greatest of all goldsmiths, fled warring France with his father and other French Huguenots to seek asylum in England. Stimulated by the work of such great artisans, English goldsmiths began to design and produce some of the finest silver pieces of all times. So began the golden age of English silver, commonly referred to as “18th Century or Georgian silver.”

Silver is a soft metal even when alloyed, and the finest silver articles can be bent or dented by careless handling. It is a proven fact that polishing abrasives or friction of any kind used on silver remove infinitesmal amounts of the metal. In time, polishing, rubbing or buffing will completely obliterate crests, monograms, etchings, and worse, render valuable identifying hallmarks indiscernible.

Silver in the home should be used. Daily washing by the natural means of soap and warm water will deter tarnish, maintain brilliance, and in time, create a beautiful patina. But when silver becomes dull or tarnished, it is important to know what to use to restore its luster, and how to use it. Before discussing what to use to clean silver, let’s know what not to do, for the don’ts are more important that the do’s.

1. Don’t allow a jeweler. or silversmith, to polish your silver by machine-buffing)’ the friction created can wear holes in the metal.
2. Don’t rub silver to create a polished surface; an efficient silver cream does the work without rubbing.
3. Don’t use silrer-dip as a short cut to polishing silver; it leaves an unnatural white finish on the silver, and destroys any oxidation put there by the silversmith.
4. Do not use the electrolytic method of cleaning silver. It is frowned on by all experts and connoisseurs. This method may be quick and easy, but leaves the surface dull, white, and lusterless, and removes all the beautiful oxidation from the embossing.
5. Never lacquer silver. To begin with, lacquer is poisonous and must not touch food or beverages. Furthermore, if lacquer “wears” on silverware or cracks, the exposed silver areas tarnish, and cleaning becomes almost impossible. Lacquer is difficult and expensive to remove, and in the doing, the process steals silver from the surface.

The history of silver in America begins in Boston in the early seventeenth century. There were many laws governing silver making in America, but the silversmiths were not as rigidly controlled as in England. However, a smith working alone could not use his mark until he was twenty-one. It is good to report that few smiths were ever in trouble with the law! There were no banks or bank vaults in 17th century America. The silversmith was respected, he handled his neighbors’ wealth and was trusted implicitly. During this period it was difficult to hide money, so it was safer to have silver coins melted and made into a large teapot than to try to hide a box of coins under the mattress! A teapot or silver piece, unique in design and monogrammed, was almost impossible for a thief to dispose of.

As the years passed, American silver followed style trends. Colonial to Classical, Federal and Empire, then to Victorian and magnificent silverware was created by our craftsmen. Some of the finest examples were made from melted coins and the content was almost the same as sterling. The English used the terms Silver or Silver Standard (Sterling), but in America, Coin, Dollar, or Standard were more commonly applied to silverware. The term Pure Coin, Warranted Pure Coin, or Warranted, had to be used on solid silver pieces when silver-plating became popular in approximately 1803. Later, the word Sterling was adopted and is still stamped on silverware, and indicates the piece is .925 per cent pure silver.
By 1840, silverware in

America was being made by machine, and the great age of handcrafted silver was ending.

Collecting silver can well become a fascinating hobby, but I warn you that all you need to do is inherit one piece of fine antique silver, or buy a beautiful piece you see in an antique shop, and you are hooked! From then on you search and acquire what your pocketbook allows sometimes it doesn’t allow! If you can’t afford an antique, don’t be discouraged. There are excellent sterling silver copies and magnificent Sheffield plate. All that is missing will be the patina of age and the hallmark. So gently polish your newly acquired modern treasure, it will soon acquire its own patina and giye you untold pleasure and service.

Anyone who refuses inherited silverware, or brides who specify “no silver gifts” because it is difficult to clean, are indeed denying themselves and their families great pleasure. Silver is a good investment. Silverware is easily washed and quickly polished, and although silver will dent or bend through careless use, it never chips or breaks.

Silver, being strongly resistant to atmosphere, oxidation, and most organic compounds common to foods and beverages, is extremely useful in the home and outlives the finest china. Silver flatware, bowls, serving trays, tea or coffee services, candlesticks, etc., are utilitarian as well as beautiful, and certainly enhance the elegance of home surroundings.

The history of silver uses and silver crafts, like furniture, have followed the great influence of conquest and culture, so we trace here briefly some highlights of its story, hoping the reader will appreciate more fully the uses of this lustrous metal and the craftsmen who have handled it with such ingenuity.

Silver, the whitest of all metals, has been known and used by mankind since the dawn of history, and through the centuries has become a symbol of personal wealth, an influence and monetary balance among civilized nations.

Silver is widely diffused throughout nature and occurs in minute amounts, even in seawater. Legends tell that the ancient Chinese believed silver could be mined anywhere that wild onions were growing. Ancient alchemists attributed the white brilliance of silver to moon-glow and called the metal Luna or Diana, meaning the Crescent Moon. Silver Nitrate is still referred to as Lunar Caustic!

Second only to gold in ductility and malleability, silver readily responds to the silversmith’s every whim. Silver is soft, therefore useless unless alloyed with another metal. Copper is the most commonly used alloy.

To control the permissible amount of copper to be alloyed with silver, King John of England, in 1180, created the Goldsmiths’ Guild, then entrusted the Guild with the enforcement of silver laws. Each article of silver manufactured had to be assayed and marked by a member of the Guild, and the assay-marker was as responsible as the smith for any piece that did not contain the proper proportion of silver and alloy. Substandard pieces were broken, and the smith severely punished; death could be the penalty. As a matter of history, the gold or silversmith was a man to be reckoned with and in time became our first banker.

As a further guarantee of the silver standard, all fine pieces of English silver were hallmarked. These marks are invaluable to connoisseurs and collectors of fine silver and a fascinating subject to pursue. Hallmarks identify the silversmith, place of origin, and approximate date a piece was made.

Gilding means to cover any surface with gold and is done by several methods.

Gilt bronze (bronze d’ore) is a method of gilding bronze that was used extensively in France in the r Bth century to mimic gold and give an impression of richness to any decorative scheme.

Bronze, at this time, was considered the best metal base to use for gilding metal. Its close-grained texture and strength made it suitable for ornamentation on furniture or to support and strengthen fragile objects.

The gilding process was done by covering a bronze, or any metal form, with an amalgam of gold and mercury. This special formula, called Mercury-Gilding, was spread over the metal and heated, the mercury was thus driven off as vapor and a coating of gold was left in an absolutely pure state on the surface of the metal.

Benvenuto Cellini, in his Treatise on the Goldsmith’s Work, discusses this process of mercury-gilding in detail and tells that the fumes, resulting from the heating process, were extremely poisonous and advised the sculptor to “leave this work to someone else.” This method of mercury-gilding was banned by law many, many years ago.

Care of Antique Gilt Bronze

1. Time may dull the golden lustre of gilt-bronze. To restore its brilliance is difficult-only a goldsmith with great expertise should be allowed to work with bronze-dord.
2. Regilding could devaluate a rare piece.
3. Don’t allow dust or soot to accumulate. Use a small stiff brush to clean the intricate designs.
4. Water, with a few drops of household ammonia added, will not be harmful if all ammonia is completely rinsed off.
5. Dry thoroughly.

Vermeil

Vermeil, a French word, describes silver which has been gilded.

During the early 18th and 19th centuries vermeil was made in many countries but some of the greatest pieces were made in France by the mercury-gilding process.

Modern silver-gilding is done by an entirely different method. Vermeil should be washed with soap and water and dried with a soft cloth. Never use polishing agents or abrasives of any kind.

Gold Leaf and Gold Foil

Gold leaf is also used for gilding many surfaces but is particularly suitable for covering wood surfaces.

Gold leaves vary in thickness from 1/200,000 to 1/250,000 of an inch.

Gold foil is much thicker than gold leaf.

Care of Gold Leaf

Any surface that has been gold-leafed is valuable. Frames of old mirrors or pictures have often been gilded with gold leaf. Care is simple: check the environmental climate and keep the object free of dust or soot. Use a soft brush for dusting.

The application of gold leaf is difficult; only an expert should repair any damage or peeling.

Caution: A cloth or the vacuum cleaner could remove any loose particles.

Gold, if reasonably pure, does not tarnish, but jewelry may become dull, and should have its pristine brilliance restored before wearing.

Many excellent commercially-packaged agents are available for cleaning jewelry but the following hints are inexpensive and equally efficient for every day care.

Cleaning jewelry is a simple procedure.

1. Fill a small bowl with any liquid soap and a teaspoon or more of clear household ammonia-the ammonia adds lustre to the gold and brilliance to any encrusted stones.
2. Immerse the pieces in the bowl; let stand a few minutes.
3. Remove one item at a time.
4. Using a soft toothbrush, gently brush the piece and rinse III hot running water.
5. Dry carefully

This formula is equally good for cleaning precious stones set III platinum. (Never wash pearls in anything but clear, cold water. Dry, with a soft towel.)

Warning: Before rinsing, be sure to close the drain stopper in the basin, or you may have to call a plumber to retrieve your treasure from the waste-trap.

Gold, one of the rarest of all metals, has been taken from earth for more than 6,000 years, yet the history of gold is difficult to trace. It is, in fact, impossible to set an exact date in terms of years when prehistoric man was first attracted to native metals such as gold, but ever since he discovered the yellow nuggets glistening in stream-beds and gravels, he has wanted to possess gold. Man has slaved for gold, fought for it, and tried to fake it, because ownership of this rare metal has always given man a sense of superiority and power.
Egypt was the richest gold producing area of the ancient world.

Great fields of gold existed from which Egyptian wealth was readily mined and though Egyptian mining techniques cannot be traced in detail, it is clear from surviving evidence that ancient civilizations learned the main principles of metallurgy and gold mining techniques from the Egyptians. But as we read accounts of the methods enforced in Egyptian gold mines during the reign of the Ptolemies in the 2nd Century B.C., the glory and power of Egyptian culture is tragically tarnished.

The great historian, Diodorus, wrote “…Kings of Egypt collect together and consign to the gold-mines those who have been condemned for crime, and who have been made captive in war… sometimes only themselves, but sometimes likewise their kindred… Those who have been consigned to the mines, being many in number, and all bound with fetters, toil at their tasks continuously both by day and all night long, getting no rest and jealously kept from all escape. Living in darkness, because of the bends and twists in the galleries, they carry lamps fitted on their foreheads. They contort their bodies this way and that to match the behavior of the rock. What they hew out they throw down on the floor-all this without pause, under the severe lash of an overseer… There is absolutely no consideration nor relaxation for sick or maimed, for aged man or weak woman; all are forced to labor at their tasks until they die, worn out by misery, amid their toil…”

Diodorus summarized the story of gold when he said, “Nature herself makes it clear that the production of gold is laborious, the guarding of it difficult, the zest for it very great, and its use balanced between pleasure and pain.”

Gold is a soft lustrous metal, yellow in color, highly ductile, and remarkably malleable. Because of these innate characteristics, gold can be worked into any object, no matter how delicate or massive, and once formed into a work of art, does not tarnish or corrode and is virtually indestructible under natural conditions.

Gold is so highly ductile that one grain can be drawn into a fine wire measuring 600 feet long, and one ounce of gold can be drawn into a thread that will extend fifty miles. These fine threads, woven into cloth or combined with gossamer silk, create glorious golden textiles.

Even when cold, gold is so malleable it can be hammered into incredibly thin ‘leaves.’ Hundreds of years ago, Pliny the Elder recorded that an ounce of gold could be beaten into 750 leaves, measuring 4 fingers each way. Methods of hammering gold have been so improved through the years that today, a troy ounce (the accepted measure of gold) can be beaten into a film I/282,000th of an inch thick that would cover approximately 100 square feet and show light through it.

Delicate leaves of so-called ‘gold tissue’ have always been protected by placing very thin sheets of paper between the folds; from this usage, the common term tissue paper has evolved.

Gold, being nearly as soft as lead to be workable must be alloyed with another metal, so the term carat is used to indicate the quantity of pure gold in alloy. A carat is 1/24 of the total weight. If a piece of gold is marked” 18 carats,” it means eighteen parts pure gold to 6 parts of the alloying metal, and so on down the scale.

Copper and silver are the most commonly used alloys with gold, but today, goldsmiths use various alloys to produce gold of varying colors to enhance jewelry or other golden objects.

White gold is alloyed with silver. Red gold is created by using copper.

Green gold is due to an admixture of silver. Blue gold contains iron.

Purple gold, a modern color, is created by alloying gold with aluminum.

It has frequently been assumed that this tragedy had been foreshadowed in the fifteenth century by a general melting of baronial plate during the Wars of the Roses, and this assumption has generally been accepted as the explanation of the present rarity of early medieval silver. There does not appear to be any evidence to support this contention and it may be taken for certain that plate which was melted at this time must have been illegally sold abroad as bullion and not coined into money as it was in the Civil War. The Wars of the Roses saw the opening of no emergency mints and the surviving accounts of the London mint suggest no extraordinary activity. Of course some plate must have been destroyed and much must have changed hands, especially during the frenzied weeks between Wakefield and Towton, but the greater rarity of the plate of the earlier Middle Ages as compared with that of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries must be explained otherwise.

After all, the survival of nearly all the extant examples of plate of the latter period is due not to having been treasured as family heirlooms but to their presentation at an early date to some college or city company which managed to preserve them through the vicissitudes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The universities successfully avoided being involved in the Wars of the Roses and the citizens of London intervened as little as possible. Fate ordained that the two colleges which have preserved most of their plate (Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Christ’s College, Cambridge) should have been founded and richly endowed early in the sixteenth century. Had the choice fallen on two other colleges of earlier foundation the result might have been different.

On the other hand the immense realization of capital which occurred on the Dissolution of the Monasteries must have consigned to the melting-pot immense quantities of domestic plate from the monastic refectories and abbots’ dining-halls. Much of this must have belonged to the early Middle Ages. The abbeys were already wealthy in the thirteenth century when the city gilds were still in their infancy and most of the colleges as yet unfounded. Many of the abbeys, moreover, were at the time of the Dissolution not nearly as prosperous as they had once been, so that it is probable that what plate they retained was mostly old.

Much more deadly to the preservation of plate than the extravagances of reckless heirs and the exactions of needy governments have been the ravages occasioned by the changes of fashion. The idea that the masterpieces of the past were heirlooms to be handed down to succeeding generations is of comparatively recent growth and plate was particularly late in attracting the attention of the antiquarian collector. The illogicality of the situation in regard to plate was realized in the early eighteenth century by Matthew Prior who writes in his ‘Alma’:

My copper-lamps at any rate,
For being true antique, I bought:
Yet wisely melted down my plate,
On modern models to be wrought:
And trifles I alike pursue,
Because they’re old, because they’re new.

A careful examination of the lengthy accounts for the plate made by or through Robert Amadas for Cardinal Wolsey between 1517 and 1530 shows that nearly all was made from unwanted pieces of domestic and religious goldsmiths’ work. The callousness with which the destruction of old-fashioned plate was regarded is further illustrated in the account given by George Cavendish, Wolsey’s gentleman-usher, of the plate sacrificed by his master to regain the King’s favor after he had resigned the Great Seal on 18 November 1529. He says: ‘In the Gilt Chamber was set out upon tables nothing but all gilt plate; and a cupboard standing under a window, was garnished entirely with plate of clean gold, whereof some was set with pearl and rich stones. And in the Council Chamber was set all white plate and parcel-gilt, and under the tables, in both chambers, were set baskets with old plate, which was not esteemed but for broken plate and old.’

It is probable that the destruction of medieval plate was particularly severe about this time. A number of items which appear in a list of royal plate sent to be melted in 1533, can be recognized as having been in existence for a comparatively short time but because they had probably been made in the Gothic style they were already considered as out-of-date.

When we consider the powerful incentives which have contributed to the destruction of old plate, we cannot but be grateful to those who, from diverse and often obscure motives, have helped to preserve what remains. If we owe much to the indolence and lack of economic sense which urged some of our ancestors to cling to their old plate or that of the community to which they belonged, we must also allow that certain of them laid a certain value on the historic associations connected with some of their treasures. The fact that an object was a gift from some celebrated person of the past was unfortunately not always enough to secure its preservation. Those who felt some compunction at the destruction of a piece with historic associations were often content to compromise with their consciences and whilst consigning it to the melting-pot, to register a vow to replace it with a piece of similar value (which meant weight) when the opportunity occurred. It not at all infrequently happens that a piece which is inscribed as having been presented on some particular occasion is demonstrably of later date and may even be found to bear a hall-mark perhaps even of the nineteenth century. The earliest surviving instance of this practice is the Pusey horn, of which we shall have to speak, but the instances of this species of falsification in more recent centuries are innumerable.

After an examination of a quantity of medieval wills and inventories, it will be found that on the whole the range of utensils made in the precious metals was comparatively small. In nearly every inventory of the plate of persons of exceptional wealth unfamiliar items will be found but ordinarily the plate of baron and merchant differ from each other only in quantity.

Drinking-vessels form the largest item (beakers, bowls, cups, goblets, godets, hanaps, mazers, peces, etc., - names about which it is not always safe to dogmatize). The rest usually consists of rosewater ewers and basins, salts, spoons, candlesticks, dishes, pots and spice-plates. As there are no surviving examples of the last four items we shall not be troubled with them.

The form of most of the drinking-vessels in use during the Middle Ages may be classified roughly into two classes-those deriving from the beaker and those deriving from the bowl.

It has been suggested that the beaker originated from the use of a straight section of an ox-horn with one end stopped up. The use of beakers can be traced in this country to the eleventh century by means of manuscript illustrations. By the fourteenth century they appear to have become very popular and several are depicted in the Louttrell and ‘Queen Mary’ psalters. Beakers are mentioned in a York will of 1346 and in the accounts of the treasurer of Edward Prince of Wales in 1348.

Since this book first appeared the writer has helped to show that the mark on the beaker given by Bishop William Bateman (d. 1354) to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, proves that it was made at Avignon. The number of medieval beakers is therefore three, since a recent attempt to claim an English origin for the ‘Founder’s Cup’ of Oriel College must be resisted.

All three English beakers belong to the close of the Middle Ages and differ in pattern. The earliest is in the possession of Lady Louis Mountbatten and bears the hall-mark for 1496. It is a delightful little vessel of silver-gilt, standing only 3¼ inches high and having the lower part of the side decorated with curious projecting vertical ribs.

Of still less ambitious proportions but equally attractive is the small beaker 2! inches high, which formed part of the Pierpont Morgan Collection. Its exterior is decorated with the scale pattern popular about the time when it was made in 1525.

The only medieval beaker of ambitious proportions is the one of 1507; which was one of the rich pieces of plate with which Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, endowed Christ’s College, Cambridge, which she had founded. It stands 9t inches high, and consists of a shaped base formerly set with precious stones, a spreading drum engraved with a trellis studded with marguerites and enclosing Tudor roses and portcullises, and a cover similarly decorated and surmounted by a knop framed by six portcullises from which sprout four marguerites.