Whether made to display the family china and silver or just to provide storage, the best pieces of dining room or kitchen furniture, from aristocratic Adam sideboards to humble dressers, are now worth thousands of pounds.

The sideboard can be traced back to the side table, originally used for serving food. The dresser, on the other hand, probably developed from the 17th-century court cupboard used to display plate. (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…)

Tumbler cups were simple, amusing little vessels which never actually tumbled, because the silver in their rounded base was of a heavier weight than the sides, causing them to right themselves before they spilled their contents. Thus they were most convenient in carriages when refreshment was taken, since they could be relied upon to stay more or less upright, however rough the road or unpredictable the reactions of the horses in an emergency. These tiny cups appeared from about 1650 and were much in demand thereafter, particularly during the eighteenth century. They were usually devoid of decoration except for the owner’s crest or a little engraving, and measured from around two inches in height, seldom being more than four. (more…)