Category Archives: Silver

Silver – What’s Hot and What’s Not?

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Jenny Knott, Silver and Jewellery Specialist

Silver is a commodity which is in an interesting place. Last year the price rose hugely, in line with gold, and as a result of global economic concerns. Typically, when there is economic uncertainty the price of precious metals rises because they are a safe haven. The silver price has now declined again, also in line with gold, but many people believe that the price of silver is being suppressed (conspiracy theorists have a field day with the control banks and governments may have over this) and that it may rise dramatically in the medium to long term. To this end there are people collecting/hoarding silver against this possibility. Sometimes these people will buy from dealers who have picked up uncommercial items and are happy to sell them on at slightly above scrap price.

Image of Georgian silver tea service

A Georgian silver tea service – not much called for in entertaining today

Silver is also interesting because whilst gold is, by and large, used for decorative purposes silver is used a lot in industry, particularly in medical equipment, electronics, the nuclear industry and many other areas so the price is indexed against these uses too. For example, the price of platinum is greatly reduced now because it is no longer in demand for catalytic converters in diesel cars.

Image of a silver claret jug

A silver claret jug – still a beautiful addition to the sideboard

So, this brings us on to what is and isn’t saleable in the silver market.

Image of a novelty silver mustard pot in the form of an owl

A novelty silver mustard pot in the form of an owl – very much a collector’s item today

The most apposite question to ask would be “Is it useful, is it rare or is it beautiful?” If it ticks one or more of these boxes the market is extremely strong. If not, then silver may be worth little over scrap. To give some examples, in the 20th century wedding presents were often silver gifts, cruets sets, tea sets, fish eaters and servers. As we no longer used ground white pepper, or tend to make tea in a silver tea pot or even eat our fish with fish eaters, the prolific examples of these relatively ordinary things are not in great demand. However, there is a huge appetite for unusual items, novelty items, maybe a mustard pot in the shape of an owl or a mouse? Tableware is always popular; candlesticks, claret jugs, wine coasters and some flatware are greatly in demand.

image of a silver cup made by Omar Ramsden

A silver cup made by Omar Ramsden – still much sought after today

Finally, the rare. Dealers and collectors will battle over rare silver, pieces by sought after makers across the ages, for example Paul Storr, Paul de Lamerie, Hester Bateman and the Bateman family, Liberty, Omar Ramsden, to name but a few. These are a handful of the makers across the years whose work is highly sought after. Bateman pieces can be acquired relatively inexpensively, whereas pieces by de Lamerie would command seriously high prices. All would be in demand. As is silver with unusual hallmarks, for example provincial silver and also early silver.

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Silver

Hallmarks

A Favourite Piece of Silver – The Christoph Jamnitzer Marriage Cup

The Lesquesne Silver Coffee Pot

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Hallmarks

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Jenny Knott, Silver and Jewellery Specialist

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Hallmarking is one of the oldest forms of consumer protection. It dates back to 1300 when Edward 1st instituted a statute for the assaying or testing of precious metals. The purpose of this was to make sure that silver in production for domestic use would have the same fineness as that of coin silver. The standard of silver was therefore set as the same as that of coinage. This is ‘sterling’ silver and denotes silver in which pure silver makes up at least 92.5% of the content, the rest being alloy. This alloy is necessary to make pure silver, which is soft and malleable, into silver that is more user friendly, but still attractive and workable.

The hallmark for Paul Storr. London 1810

The hallmark for Paul Storr. London 1810

There is a theory that the term ’sterling’ comes from the word Easterlings – who were people experienced in coin making, from the Eastern German states brought to England in the reign of Henry II to improve the quality of the coinage.
The original statute allowed wardens from the Company of Goldsmiths in London to circulate around the workshops in the city and test the silver and gold. At that time, silver was assayed and marked with the lion’s head, which is still the symbol of the London assay office today. The term for a lion at the time was ‘leopart’ and so it became known as a leopard’s head, though as you can see from the images it is a lion.
Gradually gold too came to be assayed and bore the same leopard’s head mark. In 1363, the maker’s mark started to be added. Originally this was a pictorial mark, as literacy was negligible in much of the population. Over time this changed, and the maker’s or sponsor’s initials became more common. Silver plate, however, bore pictorial marks for many centuries and sometimes still does.
A century later the date letter was added. This came about when the Goldsmiths acquired their own hall and employed an assayer to test and mark pieces that were submitted for testing. The date letter enabled people to know who the assayer at the time had been, and therefore who could be held to account for standards.

Below Victorian hallmark for London 1860

Below Victorian hallmark for London 1860. Maker’s Edward and John Barnard

This gives us three of four marks which we are accustomed to seeing on silver and gold. The final mark is the town of the city. In theory, the Goldsmith’s Hall in London had jurisdiction over the whole of the country, but in practice, it was difficult for provincial makers to bring items to London to be assayed. It is also likely that the London makers took little interest in their provincial colleagues dismissing them as inferior. However, there is plenty of evidence that gold and silver work of high quality was being produced all over the country and there was a demand to have this recognised. In 1423 Henry VI appointed York, Newcastle, Lincoln, Norwich, Bristol, Salisbury and Coventry as having their own borough mark or ‘touch’; albeit that the London Goldsmiths still claimed the right of control over all silver and gold. These days early provincial marks are highly sought after as these assay offices have long since closed. It’s worth noting that although certain cities have a reputation for particular items, for example Sheffield cutlery, Birmingham small wares, London marks are still associated with the largest and most prestigious commissions.
These days only four assay offices remain in Great Britain – London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh.

Hallmark above for Birmingham 1927

Hallmark above for Birmingham 1927. The maker’s mark is Elkington and Co.

Birmingham’s town mark is an anchor, which seems odd given Birmingham’s lack of proximity to the sea. Silversmith, plate maker (and, incidentally, partner of James Watt the engineer) Matthew Bolton set up camp in London to campaign for an assay office in Birmingham so that his burgeoning business could assay their goods locally. The silversmiths of Sheffield adopted a similar campaign. Whilst this lobbying continued, they stayed at the Crown and Anchor Inn and according to tradition, when they were successful in their submissions, they decided to use the symbols of the inn in which they had lodged as their city marks. They tossed a coin and Birmingham and got the anchor and Sheffield the Crown.

The £50 note with Matthew Boulton and James Watt.

The £50 note with Matthew Boulton and James Watt

In 1975 Sheffield changed its mark to a rose and in the same year, the assay offices brought their date letters, which had been individually attributed to each office, into alignment. Now all assay offices have the same year letter. Originally the date letters were changed on the day that the Goldsmith’s guild wardens were elected, which was St Dunstan’s day – May 19th. The Hallmarking Act of 1973 bought the remaining four British offices London, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Edinburgh into line with each other the date letter now changing on January 1st each year.
So next time you glance at the back of your fork and see those four little marks winking at you, you will know the centuries of history that caused them to look as they do.

A Favourite Piece of Silver – The Christoph Jamnitzer Marriage Cup

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Sadly, the first photo does not show my country retreat – it is the Schloss Moritzburg, about 10 miles from Dresden and was the country seat of the Dukes of Saxony. It was built around 1750, primarily to house their fabulous collection of art and works of art and it’s where my chosen piece of silver spent a couple of hundred years. I have chosen this piece because it is a true tour de force of the silversmith’s skills and has had an extraordinarily romantic and eventful history.

Christoph Jamnitzer marriage cup front

It is a Marriage Cup, about 50 cms high, made in silver gilt by Christoph Jamnitzer (image supplied) in Nuremburg around 1615. Topically controversial, the subject is a Blackamoor – one of thousands of North Africans brought into the region to work as servants on the estates of the wealthy European families of the period. The name of the subject is not known, but the bust represents the central feature of the coat of arms of the fabulously wealthy Pucci family of Florence, and was made to commemorate a Pucci family member marrying one of the equally wealthy Strozzi family.

Christoph Jamnitzer marriage cup side

The head up to his crown would have been hand raised from a single disc of silver – hammered into shape with thousands of very skilfully struck blows to form the likeness we can see here. It would have been mercury gilded and was originally partially painted black – some of which has worn away over the years. The top of his head was another hammered-up disc and very realistically chased with curled hair and topped with an extravagantly plumed head dress set with coloured crystals.

Christoph Jamnitzer marriage cup back

He has a single pierced ear and wears a pearl drop earring. The ‘chopped – off’ back of his neck is beautifully chased and engraved with the coat of arms of the Strozzi family. The base would have been spun up on a lathe from another disc of silver and laboriously and fabulously skilfully chased, engraved, and embossed with scroll work. The bust is supported and strengthened with cast silver gilt scroll brackets embellished with flowerheads.

Back to Schloss Moritzburg. In 1945, the Royal family had for many years been harried by the Nazis, and with the imminent arrival of the Russians, two of the elder Princes decided to hide much of their fabulous collection. To that end they commissioned over 40 large wooden crates. Under cover of darkness the Princes, unaided, went to the forest area of the estate and dug two huge pits which took them five nights to complete. They then drew a rudimentary map and entrusted it to their elderly father. The great majority of the works of art were packed and interred in this secret location, leaving the pictures, furniture and largest pieces plus a few favourite pieces and silver and gilt, in daily use in the Schloss.

Unfortunately, the Duke passed on the location of the treasure to his Estate Forester, a chap called Mandel. Two years later in 1947, Mandel was ‘persuaded’ by the occupying Russian troops to reveal the location of the cache and the whole lot was unearthed and taken away. The collection had been well catalogued and listed over the years and many of the items were unique but very, very few have come to light over the ensuing years.

Shortly after the first ‘burial’ the family were becoming increasingly concerned about their future and decided to repeat the process with some of their remaining favourite items in case they had to make a quick getaway. Amongst these selected pieces were a solid gold tea set and tray made in Augsburg in the early 1720’s, a fantastic gold table centre piece enamelled with exotic flowers and fruit made in 1701, precious coins and family medals and thankfully, my Blackamoor’s head too.

The three pits they dug were apparently not wide enough, so the crates had to be buried upright. Everything was undertaken in such haste that there was little packaging done. The enamelled centrepiece suffered bad damage; the gold tea set was badly bruised, but the Blackamoor’s head fortunately remained undamaged. No map was made of their location and they lay undisturbed until sometime between October 1996 and November 1998.

The Schloss remained empty after the family’s departure and things had lain undisturbed until 2 metal detectorists chanced upon the first of the 3 crates in 1996. Thankfully, proper procedure was followed, and the two Princes who by now were living in Canada, were able to prove family ownership and the contents of the 3 crates, less a few personal trinkets were sold at auction in 1999. The Blackamoor’s head was keenly contested at the sale and was bought by a Swiss museum – and yes, I have made a pilgrimage to see him again!!

Apparently it was usual in the 1600’s when two very wealthy families inter-married that extravagant and expensive gifts like this marriage cup were exchanged, so there just might be a similar Strozzi family marriage cup somewhere out there for me – the only problem being that this one fetched £1,450,000 and that was 20 years ago!!!

The Lesquesne Silver Coffee Pot

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At auction in 1971 estimate £20,000 – £25,000
At auction in 1983 estimate £150,000 – £175,000
At auction in 2013 estimate £3.5 – £4 million!!

Paul de Lamerie Lequesne Coffee Pot

I have had the pleasure of handling this wonderful piece of silver three times over the years but sadly never as the owner or vendor!
Paul de Lamerie is always lauded as being England’s finest silversmith, but as his name suggests he is from the continent. He was in fact Dutch, – Holland actual arriving in England as a 1 year old with his Hugenot family, escaping the religious persecution of the time.

In 1703 he was apprenticed to a fellow Hugenot smith, Pierre Plattel, and by 1713 had set up his own workshop. He very quickly became well known for quality workmanship combined with a sense of style, showing some continental influences which were easily incorporated in the emerging Rococo taste and style of decoration.

The pot was commissioned in 1738 by Sir John Lequesne to commemorate his wedding to Miss Mary Knight of Hampshire and both of their Coats of Arms are engraved to the side of the pot. Sir John was a fellow Hugenot of about the same age as Lamerie and had become a highly successful and wealthy trader in London in the 1720s and a prominent political figure. Contemporary records imply that Lesquesne was somewhat of a smooth operator, gaining his knighthood by being very solicitous and supportive of the newly arrived George II from Germany. Sadly though, the marriage was short lived as Sir John died shortly after in 1741.

English silver of the Queen Anne and George I periods is generally quite restrained: with plain conical, octagonal, or pear-shaped bodies and little in the way of applied or engraved decoration. This pot, although still having a pear-shaped body raised up from a single disc of silver, has bold spiral flutes chased into it and the three scroll legs are cast and join the body on panels which are cast and applied and depict putti clasping the branches of a coffee bush. The short stubby spout emerges from a finely cast mask of a youth emerging from a coffee branch cluster and the handle sockets are cast as snarling lions’ masks.
Paul de Lamerie Lequesne Coffee Pot Spout
There is a short spout at the top of the body, rather than being a long slender spout from the bottom of the body. It was designed thus for a practical reason. Tea, coffee and hot chocolate all came to England from the mid 17th century and by the early 1700s coffee was being drunk rather like Turkish coffee these days; that is a very thick and heavy brew which had sugar added before being transferred to the pot, making it quite ‘gloopy’ to pour. This would have been a problem with a long slender curved spout.
Paul de Lamerie Lequesne Coffee Pot - coffee branches detail
The use of coffee bush branches as a decorative feature is, as far as we are aware, unique. Presumably, they were used to denote it being a coffee pot, but it has also been suggested that one of Lesquesne’s business ventures might well have been in the importing of coffee to England, so the design may have been a nod to this trade. The finial is cast with shells (very much a Rococo feature) and there are small panels of finely engraved trellis-like decoration in the Chinoiserie taste. There are also some very boldly chased floral clusters and swags. It may be somewhat of a riot of decorative styles incorporated in a pot that measures under 30 cms, but in my opinion it works marvellously well.

So why is this George II silver coffee pot worth hundreds of times more than any other pot of the same era? Firstly, it is the de Lamerie factor. He gained the Royal warrant from George II only three years after setting up on his own, and he was also a silversmith favoured by members of the Houses of Parliament. Most of his production was on a commissioned basis from wealthy patrons, most had coats of arms, and a lot of contemporary records survive.

But despite his popularity and great success over his 30 or so year career, his production was surprisingly limited. Even the smallest of his products was superior in quality and style than most of his contemporaries and he never bought in stock from other smiths – a practice quite common where a smith would buy bits from a fellow smith before hallmarking and marking it with his own maker’s mark. The legally enforceable Hallmarking Act, which has been in operation for 750 years or so, has worked well and as far as I’m aware there are no de Lamerie fakes around, and unlike the picture world you don’t find silver with the ‘school of Lamerie’ or ‘in the manner of Lamerie’ labels.

You would have thought that a silver coffee pot made for use over 250 years ago would show some signs of wear, but this pot is as crisp and sharp as when it left the factory. I am therefore sure that from day one it was a piece of silver that commanded respect and reverence and may have spent much of its life as a showpiece. Even the fruitwood handle looks to be original.
Secondly, is the design factor of the pot. It is the first recorded piece of English silver that carries features from the French Regency style that was prevalent in the early 1720s in Europe. This trend developed into the full-blooded Rococo period of the mid-century which influenced the decorative features of furniture and paintings for several decades.

Thirdly, it is a seminal work of art in my opinion and a wonderful example of the silversmiths’ skills. Works of art do not have to be painted on canvas!!

And finally, it is totally unique. Thankfully, because if there were another one around I couldn’t even afford the knob on the top!