The Silver Antiques Insider

Antique Silver Table Utensils Of A By-Gone Era

One of the delights of antique silver is finding items that were once considered de rigueur at any well-appointed table, like grape shears. These beautifully crafted antique sterling silver scissors were used to daintily nip off small bunches of grapes at dinner parties. When you're trading witty conversation with the duke or countess at your side, why paw at a cluster of glistening cluster of Red Globes or Muscats when you can snack in style? Grape shears were typically placed beside a bowl or board of the fruit, allowing guests to scissor off small portions. At Nelson and Nelson, we love the ornate decorative styles that the finest antique silver grape shears feature.



These sterling silver grape shears, circa 1910, portray a large head of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. The hallmarked sterling handles are adorned with floral buds and leaves, while the cutting blade is stainless steel.For more information, click here.



These circa 1910 Art Nouveau grape shears feature extra-heavy cast-silver handles that are intricately decorated with flowers, leaves, and scrolls. In excellent condition, they are hallmarked with the Reed and Barton symbol and marked sterling. For more information, click here.



What's a fancy pair of grape shears without the appropriate accompanying grape dish? This American sterling silver figural grape leaf dish was made by Redlich circa 1890. It is is beautifully formed, and features the delicate veins of a grape leaf. A looped grape vine emanating from the leaf serves as the grape shear holder. The dish is fully hallmarked with a nice patina, and is in excellent condition. For more information, click here.

Unusual Sterling Silver Antiques

Here at Nelson and Nelson, we come across all sorts of interesting objects from past ages, such as tastevins, lorgnettes, and vinaigrettes.

What's a vinaigrette, you ask? It certainly has nothing to do with the salad course. It's actually a small silver, gold or porcelain box that was particularly popular among well-to-do ladies of the 18th and 19th centuries. Beneath the hinged lid is a small screen, which held a sponge soaked in a scented liquid like vinegar or lavender water. Whenever the woman walked along a particularly pungent street, or felt faint, she'd open up the vinaigrette and take a whiff to steel herself. 

This lovely sterling silver vinaigrette was made by a Birmingham silversmith in 1827. The hinged, rectangular box has is decorated on the top and bottom with deep, horizontal grooves. The lid has a small rectangular plaque with an engraved monogram, and a partial, chased floral border. The gold-washed interior has a hinged grille with a lovely pierced design of delicate leafy scrolls. For more information, click here. 

The Fascinating History Of Sterling Silver Forks

“The fork has now become the favorite and fashionable utensil for conveying food to the mouth. First it crowded out the knife, and now in its pride it has invaded the domain of the once powerful spoon. The spoon is now pretty well subdued also, and the fork, insolent and triumphant, has become a sumptuary tyrant."

This quote is from a surprisingly fascinating history of the fork, which is an item frequently featured in Nelson and Nelson's fine selection of antique sterling silver flatware. It wasn't until the 19th century that forks enjoyed general acceptance in the West, and Victorians, with their general predisposition to excess in etiquette, quickly developed a fork for every dining stuff, from shellfish to salads and pastries. Here's an excellent rule of thumb when it comes to forks:

Forks with long tapered tines (dinner forks) are used for spearing thick morsel of food, such as proteins. Forks with a wider left time and an optional notch (salad fork, fish fork, dessert fork and pastry fork), provide extra leverage when cutting foods that do not require a knife. Forks with curved tines (oyster fork) are made to follow the shape of the shell.

While Wikipedia lists no less than 30 different kinds of forks, we offer a more carefully curated flatware selection, including these beautiful examples of forks:

This unique set of 12 Gorham terrapin forks, circa 1900, features sharp tines for spearing firm meat in turtle soup. broth. The forks are in very good condition and weigh in at a heavy 12.5 troy ouces. Eight of the 12 bowls are slightly gilded (4 are not), and all are marked on the back with the Gorham hallmark and sterling. For more information, click here. 

 

This set of 10 Gorham ice cream forks features a highly decorative Rococo pattern, with intricate flowers, leaves and scrolls. Each fork depicts a woman on the top of the front of each handle. Made circa 1900, the set is in excellent condition and weighs 6.5 ounces. For more information, click here. 

Beautiful Antique Silver From...China?

For more than three decades, Nelson and Nelson has been known for our fine offerings of European and American antique silver and sterling silver. But did you know that we also carry a select assortment of Chinese silver? 

This article from PBS' Antique Roadshow gives a nice overview of the history of Chinese silver manufacture from the 18th to 20th centuries:

For collectors, the word "silver" might bring to mind an English tea set or a Continental soup tureen or maybe a patriotic silver tankard by Paul Revere. Less familiar to collectors is a world of silver that is not Western, but Chinese. Chinese export silver was made for Western tourists in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, featuring designs that include Chinese dragons rather than Western motifs such as goats and grapes.

If you're looking for a beautiful piece of antique silver, but want something that's different from what traditional Western styles have to offer, we encourage you to explore our antique Chinese silver offerings. 

Elegant and timeless, this antique Chinese Export silver box was made by the prolific silversmith Wang Hing circa 1890. The hinged lid is applied with a cast, repousse and chased profusion of chrysanthemum flowers. The underside of the base is hallmarked WH90 and Chinese character mark. The box is of heavy gauge silver and is in excellent condition. For more information, click here. 

This excellent quality Chinese silver figural dragon bowl, circa 1900, features a dragon decoration that is fully pushed out from the bowl with the figural whiskers applied on the nose. The whole bowl has a stippled finish, and the top rim is highlighted with a decoration of clouds. The inside is accented with a light gold wash, and the bottom is hallmarked with Tuck Chang and Chinese character mark. This bowl is very heavy at 32 troy ounces! For more information, click here.

Antique Silver Soup Dishes With A Long History

About a century ago, diamondback turtle (or terrapin) soup was a must for any high-class menu. It had a humble beginning: in Colonial times, diamondback turtles were such common fare among tidewater settlers that slaves, sick to death of eating turtle day in and day out, once went on a hunger strike to protest the stuff. By the the late 19th century, however, terrapin soup, redolent in cream and sherry,  was so popular among the upper classes that the turtle was nearly hunted to extinction. The ban on sherry during Prohibition, followed by a reduced demand for the fancy foodstuff during the Great Depression, put an end to the terrapin soup fad.

Today, diamondback turtles are on the "endangered" or "species of concern" list in seven states on the U.S. eastern seaboard. Nonetheless, this elegant set of 12 sterling silver terrapin dishes made by Shreve and Co. in the 1890s and originally used to serve diamondback turtle soup, are desired as collectibles and would be a conversation piece in any setting. In excellent condition, these dishes would also be a beautiful way to showcase a meal of mock terrapin soup. For more information, click here.

Mock Terrapin Soup
3 pounds lean beef
1 pint milk
1 Tablespoon flour
½ teaspoon mace
½ teaspoon dry mustard
1 ½ quarts water
1 stick butter
1 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil the meat and water until reduced by a third. 
2. Add the milk and butter.
3. Remove the meat and grind or chop fine.  Return to stock.
4. Simmer for 5 minutes more.  Add flour dissolved in cream and seasonings.  Cook until thickened.  Serves 8.

Celebrating Antique Martelé Silver

If you happen to be in central Texas for the holiday season, take the time to visit the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, where a beautiful exhibition of Martelé  silver will be on display beginning December 16th.

Martelé, from the French marteler, "to hammer," was manufactured by Gorham from the end of the 19th century until the 1930s. Objects made for the Martelé line were crafted from a single sheet of 950 silver (purer and thus softer than standard 925 silver), which was hammered into the desired shape before it was chased (decorated). Because every object was hand-wrought, it took an enormous amount of time to produce Martelé ware: a single coffee pot required about 140 hours of raising and chasing. An admirer of Martelé silver characterized its unique finish as "the soft misty finish of innumerable little hammer blows, overlapping each upon each like fairy footprints upon moonlit sands."

Each piece of Martelé silver is unique, and only 1500-1700 Martelé silver items are still in existence.

If you are looking to acquire an exceptional piece of antique Martelé silver, Nelson and Nelson offers several quality Martelé silver objects, including this extraordinary 3-piece coffee set.

The set is fully hallmarked with the Martelé maker’s and standard mark, .9584 and I/BB series mark. This three-piece set is documented in L. J. Pristo’s book, Martelé, Gorham’s Art Nouveau Silver, page 357. It is listed as a 3-piece set, I/BB, made 1905/1915, consisting of a coffeepot, sugar bowl and creamer. The set is beautifully handmade, with evidence of the hand-hammering indicative of Martelé silver. The coffeepot is quite unique in that it not only has the amorphic undulating plant life decoration, but there is a beautifully executed figure of a woman with a floral headband emanating from the pot’s mid-section. The woman emerging from the waves is one the finest examples of figural hand made silver we have ever seen. The sugar and creamer are in the exact naturalistic pattern of the set. This set is truly a collector’s dream. For more information on this set, click here.

Antique Silver Americana For Your Thanksgiving Table

Thanksgiving is only a week away and some diligent hostesses (not me, of course), have planned their menus, ordered their turkeys, are already busy polishing their antique silver serving dishes and flatware for this most American of holidays.

Just as we owe our national day of turkey, family, and football to a bedraggled group of 17th-century English religious separatists, the silverware fad originally came to America by way of European colonists. By the turn of the 20th century, wealthy Americans, and even some of the middle class, were amassing collections of sterling silverware that rivaled those of their British contemporaries.

The silversmiths of Gorham, in Rhode Island, have been producing magnificent silver items since 1831, when struggling jeweler Jabez Gorham began making "coin silver" spoons--that is, flatware produced from European silver coins. Jabez's son John expanded Gorham into a prominent company that dominated the American decorative silver market from the late 19th to the 20th century. One of the largest silver service collections in American history--a 740-piece set commissioned in the late 19th century by Colonel Henry Jewett Furber, the president of Universal Life Insurance Company of New York--was manufactured by Gorham. Gorham silver flatware has also graced the tables of three different U.S. Presidents: Lincoln, Grant, and George H.W. Bush.

Considering a classic piece of Americana for your Thanksgiving table? This charming, rare, and very functional antique silver and mixed-metal crumber, manufactured by Gorham circa 1880, is a classy way to scoop up those wayward bits of pumpkin pie at the end of your holiday feast.

Featuring an all-over hand hammered surface in the Japanese taste, the shaped rectangular crumb catcher is highly reflective and has a wonderful texture. The hammered handle also has an applied mixed metal leaf, branch, and berry motif. The reverse of the handle has been stamped with the identifying marks of the Gorham Manufacturing Co., and the words Sterling & Other Metals. It measures approximately 12 3/4" long, and is in excellent condition with a wonderful texture and crisp decoration. For more information on this unique piece, click here.

A Taste For Vintage History

One of my most embarrassing moments (and I have a few) occurred during a wonderful dinner party long ago at a very high-end restaurant. I noticed that the sommelier--disarmingly polite yet aloof in the way that only the French can be--had the most charming small silver dish hung by a chain around his neck. I was well into my third glass of Latricières-Chambertin when I complimented the man for the fact that he carried such a sophisticated ashtray around with him.

"Madame," he sniffed. "This is no ashtray. This is a tastevin."

Chastened and slightly hungover the next day, I did my research. A tastevin is a small silver saucer originally used by winemakers in Burgundy to taste their wines. In dark cellars lit by candles or lanterns, the silvery dimpled or faceted interior of the tastevin reflected light, allowing the winemaker to judge the color and clarity of the wine.

Although tastevins are rarely used today, some sommeliers still wear them around their necks as a matter of tradition.

If you have a wine fancier in your life, perhaps you may want to consider giving them a piece of--literally--vintage history in the form of one of our wonderful antique tastevins.

This circa 1900 tastevin is decorated with an applied swag and bow motif along its outer border. A French Napoleonic silver coin is embedded in the bottom of the bowl and is surrounded by an applied leaf design. On the underside of the bowl the coin is again visible and is surrounded by a figural rope border. The handle is an intricate design of crisscrossing swords and leaf detailing. The tastevin is engraved with a unicorn and crown crest and the words “Epopee Militaire 1810”. It is fully hallmarked with stamps to the right of the handle and on the bottom of the handle. At 9 troy ounces, it is extremely heavy. It measures4 ½ in. in diameter and the handle is an additional 1 ½ in. in width. It stands 1 5/8 in. high. It is in excellent condition a has a beautiful patina.

This circa 1900 tastevin has the requisite wave edge and concave circle design with a large raised center circle. A simple circular handle is adorned with a plain silver thumb rest. It is fully hallmarked with stamps on the bottom of the handle. It measures 3 ¼ in. in diameter and the handle is an additional 1 ¼ in. in width. It stands 1 in. high.

A Silversmith of the Modern Age, part 2

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my favorite silversmiths is the French modernist Jean Puiforcat. Now, last time I told you that his innovative designs in silver were heavily inspired by both mathematics and God. Looking at his admittedly exquisite work, I have to say I can see neither at play, but a wonderful article by Cooper Hewitt-curator Gail Davidson explains it all.

In the late 1920s, Puiforcat became interested in applying proportions based on the golden section to his silver tea sets, coffee pots, trays, etc. Well, I never made it past algebra in school, so I’ll let Davidson describe the concept to you:

"Briefly described, the golden section is the ratio of two segments of any form so that the dimension of the smaller segment is to the dimension of the larger segment as the dimension of the larger segment is to the sum of both segments. Written algebraically it is a/b = b/(a b); or 1:1.618. The golden section, also known as the golden mean, golden rectangle, and divine proportion, is often represented by the Greek letter phi (after Phidias; w. c. 490- 430 B.C.), as well as by a pentagram, or a logarithmic spiral, since each contains the golden section."

Davidson notes that Puiforcat believed that mathematical order was divinely inspired, and a close friend, who was also a Catholic priest, may have encouraged him in his studies on the golden section.

Although Puiforcat liked his angles and numbers, this doesn’t mean he produced very austere pieces. On the contrary:

“Puiforcat's genius, especially evident in the objects he made in the 1930s, was to make this cool, calculated aesthetic supremely sensuous, giving a "poetic sense to geometry." (30) This poetry of contour and form resulted in part from the designer's deliberate advance from straight lines and angular shapes in the 1920s to circles and curves in the 1930s.”

This large Sterling Silver tray is a perfect example of Puiforcat's "cool, calculated aesthetic," clearly depicting the understated craftsmanship of his work. (for more information on the tray, click here.)

With the outbreak of WWII, Jean Puiforcat fled France and settled in Mexico, where he continued to produce silver items for the U.S. market. Many critics see the influence of pre-Columbian art in his later work. He died shortly after his return to Paris in 1945.

A few years before his death, while in exile from the Second World War, Puiforcat, veteran of the First World War, wrote the following:

“Today more than ever there exists the danger of a gray and vulgar future and it threatens the silversmith more than anyone. The silversmith has the duty to contribute to and maintain what is left of feelings in the heart of man.”

And that’s why, whenever I see Puiforcat silver today, I think: the simplicity—it’s so beautifully misleading!

A Silversmith of the Modern Age: Puiforcat

Now and then I’d like to share with you a little bit about my favorite silversmiths. Jean Puiforcat is one of them. When you step into a gallery that’s mostly full of highly decorated and ornamented silver, his cool, clean Art Deco pieces simply radiate a beautiful simplicity. “It’s ‘summer silver,’” a friend once joked to me.

The Parisian Puiforcat (1897-1945) has a rather interesting background for a silversmith: yes, like so many of them, he was born into a long line of silversmiths, but he was also a World War I veteran and Olympic hockey player. He apprenticed for his family’s firm and studied sculpture with Louis-Aimé Lejeune before setting up his own shop in Paris in 1922. Although he was well versed in the applied decoration of traditional French silver arts, Puiforcat instead quickly distinguished himself with the restrained, pure lines of his silver work. The simplicity of his forms are balanced by the rich materials, such as ivory, rosewood, and lapis lazuli, that are incorporated into his compositions.

Of critical importance was Puiforcat’s participation in Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann's Pavilion of a Rich Collector, which was the epitome of the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels, the landmark exhibition from which the term “Art Deco” is derived. He was also a founding member of the Union des Artistes Moderne (U.A.M), despite the fact that he continued to design luxury items while the U.A.M railed against the affluent elite and instead emphasized products for mass production. A bit of a stubborn man, no? I think it was the hockey player in him.

Mathematics and God were also strong influences on Puiforcat’s silver work. But that, dears, is worthy of its own entry. Until then, enjoy this beautiful Puiforcat Tea and Coffee set from the year of the Paris Exposition. The tetradecagonal cylinders rising from circular pedestals are brilliant in their simplicity, and the silver makes a lovely contrast against the rosewood lids and handles.