Although hand skills continued, science and technology were advancing on all fronts. Pottery and porcelain were soon to prove a field for industrialisation. While British factories could not yet match Meissen and Sevres, attractive and popular pieces were made. Highly decorated soft-paste porcelain figures were still made by Chelsea (for tables, mantelshelves and cabinets), now with coloured and gilded scrolls instead of the earlier mounds forming the base. Tiny figures known as ‘toys’ were made to hold scent, needles and bonbons. Earthenware figures and Toby jugs were made in the Staffordshire potteries to appeal to a mass market. (more…)

When the monarchy was restored in Britain in 166o, and Charles II became king, he and his courtiers brought back a desire for the luxurious style of life they had briefly shared during their exile in the royal households of Europe, especially at the French court. Released from the pious austerity of the Commonwealth, Britain’s upper classes indulged in lavish comforts in the home, sensuous clothing, enjoyment ofthe arts, and robust entertainments at the theatre, at horseraces and at the gaming table.

With parliament and monarch in accord, a standing army established to back up their authority, and new banking, investment and insurance organisations growing to fund commerce, the nation prospered. Overseas trade grew and London was rapidly becoming the greatest port in the world, bringing in spices, tea, coffee, chocolate, pineapples, Oriental porcelain and lacquerwork, cane, tortoiseshell, ivory, rugs and Indian chintzes. (more…)

Although a private room in the main, and a retreat from the bustle of the great chamber, this bedchamber of about 1600 still had a public to impress. A lady might work at her embroidery here, pursue religious studies, learn to play a musical instrument and talk with her closest friends. A gentleman would take guests to his bedchamber to talk business, play chess or backgammon, or have a meal.

This bedchamber is comfortable and yet grand, with an elaborate plasterwork ceiling and an ornate frieze above the panelled walls. A striking tapestry also enriches the room. The imposing bed is heavily carved on the oak headboard and on the posts that carry the tester or canopy. Ropes hold the mattress filled with rushes, wool, or feather and down. (more…)

Country-house life with the family was the ideal of Elizabethan and Jacobean gentlefolk. They could set themselves up with fine silver, rich textiles, lavish clothes and coveted goods from abroad.

A new kind of household had been established for people of power and influence by the mid-16th century.

No longer did they share a communal life with a motley assembly of officials, military supporters and other retainers. Now they lived in families in substantial homes on their country estates, some on lands that were previously owned by the Church, until they were seized after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 5536 and bestowed on supporters of the monarch as rewards for their loyalty. Some families had more than one estate. (more…)

From approximately the earlier years of the 1770s separate parts of a vessel such as spouts or lids were stamped out using a drop-hammer. The piece of Sheffield plate would be placed upon a striking block which had a die sunk with a model of the required shape. Then the hammer, the face of which was raised with the same shape as the sunken die, was manipulated from above by a rope between two vertical rods and, as it struck the block, the Sheffield plate was stamped into shape. The parts would then be soldered to the vessel. The introduction of harder steels made possible more sharply-defined pieces and during the Regency period entire units were produced in this manner. Die-stamping was a very important technique, advances in it contributing greatly to mass-production methods in both silver and Sheffield plate. By the last decade of the eighteenth century larger, flat pieces such as trays were being produced in this manner, suitably ornamented as already described. (more…)

Despite the fact that the English hallmarking system is ancient and well-tested, it cannot be relied upon purely for the authenticity of a piece. Its very reputation, respected and revered the world over, makes it vulnerable to dishonest use by fakers and forgers. Transposing marks from one object to another is not an uncommon practice and can be very lucrative when the piece is sold for a high price. Genuine marks may also be removed from an older, damaged object and `married’ to a far later example. This is why experts will sometimes breathe on a piece for, by doing so, the outline of the joins which are invisible to the naked eye should reveal themselves. Certainly when the object is oxidised the let-in silver usually shows fairly clearly. This practice of transposition is not a new one and has been used for many years. (more…)

The famous Hunt and Roskell firm was descended from the firm of Storr and Mortimer of which the eminent Regency silversmith Paul Storr became a partner in 1822. Some 14 years later Paul Storr’s nephew, John Samuel Hunt, became a third partner and when Storr retired in 1838 the firm became known as Mortimer and Hunt. Upon the retirement of Mortimer, Robert Roskell became a partner and the firm changed its name again to Hunt and Roskell. During the Great Exhibition of 1851 Hunt and Roskell exhibited, among other impressive naturalistic pieces of plate, two candelabra with their stems and branches consisting of a vine on a base of Indian architecture, dessert stands of flowering naturalistic form with Indian figures and ice-pails inspired by the lotus and enlivened with Indian plants. These pieces were part of a service made as a testimonial to the Earl of Ellenborough in recognition of his work in India and, although not within the reach of the ordinary man, were the sort of examples which were important since they influenced the design of future silver and plated goods in general. (more…)

A knife and fork may seem the perfect combination by modern standards, but before forks came into general use the knife and the spoon were the two vital, complementary utensils which served the needs at table. While eighteenth century examples of knives with handles of cast silver are available at a very high cost, the expense involved in making these in the heavier-gauge silver means that most eighteenth century examples available today are of the thinner silver produced at the end of the century.

Forks were used increasingly in England after the Restoration. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has a two-pronged fork made in 1632, one of the oldest silver table forks, but this is a very rare example. (more…)

Electro-plate produced during the nineteenth century may become as collectable as certain other pieces of Victoriana, and for the beginner in particular it has several other things to commend it. At the moment it is usually very reasonably priced. It is also interesting since it reflects the amazing conglomeration of styles which jockeyed with each other for a place of supremacy in Victorian fashion. Also, although the age of mass-production had established itself, some of the hand techniques used in the making of Sheffield plate or sterling silver wares were retained and used for some years on their electro-plated counterparts. The colour of early electro-plate, although not comparable with sterling silver or Sheffield plate, is also far more mellow than the harsh tones of modern electro-plate. Certain examples, particularly teapots and coffee pots, were quite robust considering their low cost then and now, and in some cases might even be described as sturdy compared with the lightweight objects produced today. (more…)

A few years after the turn of the eighteenth century the spoon eventually developed into the utensil which we use today. By 1720 its stem had become gracefully curved and terminated in a flat, rounded end which turned forward or upward and upon which it was rested on the table, so that the back of the bowl was uppermost in the French way. This Hanoverian rat-tail spoon continued in fashion for a few more years, the rat-tail gradually disappearing to be replaced by small droplets, either one or two, at the back of the bowl, or the increasingly fashionable scallop-shell, typical of the rococo period. The stem evolved into a flatter form, terminating by the 1760s in a curve which turned in the opposite direction to its predecessor, ie backward instead of forward, so that the spoon could be placed on the table with the interior of its bowl showing,as is still the custom in England and elsewhere today. This is termed the `Old English’ pattern and has been the basic form for spoons ever since. (more…)