The most versatile and widely available of precious metals, silver combines brilliance with strength and the ability to be intricately worked by a variety of techniques to create objects of great beauty.

Pure Silver is too soft to be made into articles that must withstand daily wear and tear, so it is alloyed (blended) with a base metal — usually copper — to make it tougher and more malleable. Most antique and modern silver in Britain is of sterling standard, which contains 92.5 per cent pure silver to 7.5 per cent base metal. (more…)

Scottish silver

Scottish marks are known as early as the middle of the fifteenth century. By 1681 the goldsmiths of Edinburgh had adopted a variable date letter and abandoned the deacon’s mark instituted in 1457 for the mark of the Assay Master. This in its turn was substituted by a thistle in 1759. The town mark is a triple-towered castle.

Although there was an active group of goldsmiths in Glasgow, mentioned in records as early as 1536, no Glasgow silver earlier than approximately 1681 appears to be marked with anything but perhaps the maker’s mark and burgh arms: a tree with a bird on the top, a hand bell suspended from the branches and across or below the trunk a salmon with a ring in its mouth (termed the fish, tree and bell mark). (more…)