Jewelry Pearls

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.”

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