Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-20
BY FLORENCE S. BERGMAN.

silver now on view at the National
Gallery of Art, under the auspices of
the Washington loan exhibition COM
mittee. is the most notable display of
the kind since that held at the Bos-
ton Museum of Fine Arts in 1906.
Prior to that there was almost no
knowledge eXtant that America had
ever produced silverware of any kind.
and the impression even among those
who possessed rare old pieces was that
they had been imported from England.
But the Boston Museum exhibition
opened the Nations eyes and launched
early native silverware on a tide of
popularity which is swelling yearly.
The silver at the National Gallery
fills seven large exhibition cases and
numbers more than $50 pieces. 1t
carries insurance of several hundred
thousand dollars. The individual
pieces would fetch prices ranging from
IA hundred dollars or so to many hun
dredS per ounce. Yet so subtle Is the
value that no profit would accrue from
the theft Of any of these pieces.
Melted down, they would yield silver
of only modest worth as mere metal.
The age, historic associations, beauty
of form and color, and interest as eX
amples of native craftwork Of an
early period combine to create their
exceptional value.
Soft Blue Luster.
The grace and balance of form, sim
plicity of design and practical, sub
Stantial quality of this EARLY silver, as
we'll as its soft blue iuster. glowing
with reflected light tbut mirroring
nothing, in the hard, glaring manner
of modern silver, give it undeniable
charm.
The lovely surface and color of old
silver are due to cleaning and age
and TO the fact that it is innocent
of the destructive modern practice
of 'buffing," and hence possesses the
so-called fire skin" This was the
result of the colonial method of an
healing. If we could enter the work
shop of an early American silver
smith we would find tremendous
contrast to the modern silver factory
In colonial days the smith was aided
only by an apprentice or two who
worked with him to learn the craft.
Pra Ctically all of the silver used was
Spanish pieces of eight" and other
coins brought to the workshop by the
patron. for New England in particu-
lar carried on tlourishing trade with
the West Indies, shipping lumber. fish
and other provisions and receiving
silver in exchange. The sill
NerSmith melted the coins in his boil
ing pans and ascertained the "ster-
ling stage by putting a bit of the
molten liquid on his touchstone and
comparing its color with that of a
piece of silver known to be up to the
standard. He then cast it into ingots
and hammered the sheets into the de-
fhIrEnaGS 4
is necessary during hammering to
make the silver maleable, our colonial
smith used charcoal fire, and the
combination of oxygen in the air with
the copper alloy in the silver made
the fire skin" or film of copper oxide
Modern methods either exclude air
during the annealing process or buff
the oxide surface off afterward
Not Made for Display.
AS one may observe in this exhibit
ton, early American silver was inf
nitely simpler, on the whole than the
contemporary product of England. 1t
was made primarily for use, not osten-
tatious display; but in the understand
ing OF true artists, which most of our
colonial Silyersmiths manifestly were,
beauty supplemented utility.
The pieces were often beautifully
ton. Engraving of arms or other de-
signs was a popular form, as well as
repousse work, which was always eff
fective. Shell feet for bowls, shell
bowls of spoons las in pair of salt
spoons by Paul REVERB, fiuted edges
and often elaborate and original
thumb pieces on tankards, were a
few of the decorated portions A
tankard by William Cowell, for in
stance. has a mask and dolphin
thumbpiece as we'll as cherub's
head. A pair of sauceboats by Paul
Revere has curved handles ending in
cherubs' heads. There seemed to be
no limits to the early silversmith's
wealth of ideas.
There is also something very init
mate about old silver. The early
craftsmen did not produce great guam
titles of it to keep on display in his
shop for possible purchasers. The
pieces were generally made to the or
der of the prospective owner, the
amount of whose coin determined
thei- size and design. Hence no two
pieces We're ever exactly alike (unless
they constituted a pair or seU The
varia tons in size and design, as well
as those always present in hand work,
hold great charm for the collector
Sentiment Played Part.
Sentiment, too. could play a part
and must have made the pieces more
completely the possessions OF their
owner than could possibly be the case
nowadays. A charming little patch
box by William Whittemore. for ex.
ample, in the shape of a heart, has a
tulip engraved upon it's cover, and on
the bottom the legend. This is Thine
and Thou Art Nine" with initials
and date. Even the craftsman, as he
fashioned it, must have known the
identity of the lady for whom it was
intended.
Every type of silver in use during
the early period is represented in the
present exhibitions; coffee and tea sets,
spoons, knives and forks, and other
things familiar to us now, as we'll as
a great number of objects which are
picturesque relics of a bygone day;
the brazier, which appears to have
been the ancestor of the modern
chatting dish; porringers, which hung
in cleaning rows over the chimney
piece, perhaps, and We're used for
soups, GRAVES, fruit, sauces, etc;
tankards. beakers. caudle cups, and
wine tasters, which passed out of use
even before the prohibition amend
ment went into effect.
One hundred early silversmiths, all
of whom worked before 1900, are
represented, including the most