YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 07877 0121 Art 1 Locked JKe25 896 .. c . A YALE UNIVERSITY ART AND ARCHITECTURE LIBRARY JUDGE WOOLSEY'S CHAMBERS NEW YORK CITY December 21, 1951 Dear John: I happened to pick up a re print of my cousin Theodore Woolsey s article on M01d Silver", and it oc curred to me that you might be interested to see it again. With best wishes for the holi days and the New Year, I am Most sincerely yours, John Hill Morgan, Esq., 44 Wall Street, New York City OLD SILVEllB TUWiMW s. wqolse^ ¦ BEPBINTED raiSi>- Harper's MffiW&P&i ¦ TOGETHER WITH A TABLE OP THE LONDON HALL MARKS ON SILVER """ f PROS* THE YEAR 1558 TO THE YEAR 1868 A Gift to JUL from John Munro Woolsey OLD SILVER BY THEODOEE S. WOOLSEY 1 1 \ REPRINTED PROM HARPEE'S MAGAZINE TOGETHER WITH A TABLE OF THE LONDON HALL MARKS ON SILVER FROM THE YEAR 1558 TO THE YEAR 1868 ? .•-.;•"!* ? JOHN WELLS 384 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 1896 The following articles on old English and Colonial Silver appeared recently in Harper's Magazine. Having obtained Messrs. Harper & Brothers' permission to issue the article, I present it herewith, together with a table of tlie London Hall Marks on Silver. JOHN WELLS Old English, Irish, and Scotch Silverware 384 Fifth Avenue, New York 441 Oxford Street, London 6 Travers Block, Newport, R. I. Copyright, 1896, by Harper & Brothers. PLATE I. AMERICAN AND ENGLISH TANKARDS. OLD SILVER. BY THEODOEE S. WOOLSEY. AN old lady who lived on Long Island during the first half of the last cen tury made it her practice — and an admi rable practice it was — to put her surplus of butter into one piece of silver every year. That this taste was not uncommon the old inventories show. Here are a few items picked almost at random from a couple of town histories in Connecticut: John Allyn, of New London, died in 1709, leaving a silver tankard, a cup, and a tumbler. The estate of Ensign Leffingwell, who died at Norwich in 1724, included three tankards, two dram-cups, four silver cups — one with two handles. The widow White of Norwich, 1757, left — reluctantly no doubt— behind her a silver hair-peg, silver cloak-clasps, a large silver tankard, a silver cup with two han dles, another with one handle, a large sil ver spoon. At his death, in 1670, Rev. John Daven port owned, fifty pounds' worth of plate. One of his successors, Rev. Mr. Street, in 1674, left a silver drinking-bowl and a silver wine-bowl. And Governor Eaton's estate, in 1656, lists £107 lis. of plate, together with a sil ver-gilt basin and ewer of Mrs. Eaton's. These worthies went to their reward, but their treasures remained in a world where moth and rust do corrupt, and PLATE II. — WINE-TUMBLERS. 578 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. where thieves too often break through and steal. In course of time they ran an added risk. The temperance movement brought cups and tankards into disrepute ; silver forks became the fashion, and the housewife, seizing the opportunity, turn ed the one into the other — a conversion afterwards bitterly regretted. An uncon verted percentage survives to a generation so appreciative as to insist, if it fails to get the real antique, upon at least the sem blance of it. Now there are various learned treatises on old plate which discuss its marks and make and fineness, and give prints of im portant pieces. But how many of us pos sess such pieces — a mazer of Henry the within limits, gives the year of manufac ture; and the maker's mark, consisting usually of one or more of his initials. Besides these four, a fifth stamp was re quired in the important London assay- office in 1784, the sovereign's head, which in turn was dropped a few years ago. The consequence of all this has been to enable English plate to be more certainly identified in respect to date and fineness and origin than any other, and to give it a peculiar value in the eyes of collectors. Now there is nothing beautiful in these English hall-marks in themselves; and given the means of ascertaining with equal certainty the make and the age of tlie plate of other nations, the quality of workman- PLATE III.— A SIXTEENTH CENTURY TANKARD OF BRESLAU MANUFACTURE TWO GERMAN BEAKERS, A LONDON PORRINGER, AND A SALT-CELLAR. Seventh's time, a corporation mace, or even a Monteith of the seventeenth cen tury? What we do see on the sideboards or in the collections of our friends is rarely figured. Yet this is exactly what we wish to know something about — when and where and by whom an article was made; what it was used for; what its proper name is. The really useful and practical hand-book of domestic plate has yet to be written. No country has insisted upon so care ful and systematic a series of marks upon its plate as Great Britain. There is the stamp of nationality— a lion passant; the "touch "of the various goldsmith com panies authorized to stamp silver, for ex ample, the leopard's head in London, or the harp in Dublin ; the date letter, which ship, in which French and German and Norwegian silversmiths often surpass the English, is the thing to be considered. Perhaps an illustration will make what is meant clearer. Magdalen College, Ox ford, owns some twenty or more English tankards, dating perhaps from 1670 to 1750, and a fine sight they are in the plate- cupboard of the buttery. Among them or more often in the president's house, is a larger tankard with a lion thumb-piece which iB justly noteworthy, and listed on the college books as the lion tankard. 1 his piece would bring at auction in Lon don four or five hundred dollars at least. Here are figured (Plate VI.) four Norwe gian tankards, each also with a lion thumb-piece, of a similar shape, as early a date, finer workmanship, and more elab orate decoration, which have none of them PLATE IV. — OLD CAUDLE-CUPS. cost one-quarter of that sum. The silver is not quite so pure in them, and they are not English. That is all there is against them. They make a fine show, are gen uine pieces, and are all dated, either by the letting in of a coin or by a date in cised, as well as by the character of the work. The largest will hold half a gallon. Now why should the English tankard be worth as much as all of these put together? Another tankard is also given here (Plate III.), made in Breslau, in eastern Prussia, and dating from the sixteenth century, fully a hundred years older than the oth ers. It is small, but very elegant in shape and design, and of workmanship of a very high order. The same prejudice exists against it, and it would not bring half so much per ounce as an English piece of the same date. While we are discussing tankards let me call attention to a fact which came out very clearly in the Mag dalen buttery. Here are given in a row (Plate I.) several simple tankards of American or Eng lish make. The shape of all is very similar, but they differ in their lids. Now by simply no ticing the lids it is easy to tell the rela tive age of tankards of this variety. The rule is. this : The flatter the lid, the earlier is the piece. Those figured here vary in date from cir ca 1670 to 1770. That on the left is the oldest — very flat on top — a fine specimen of American plate. The next, with an additional step in its lid, was made by (STI, whoever he may be. The others, later in date, have rounded lids, with usually an open-work thumb- piece. A fifth example in the same class is given in Plate VIII. This, by its lid, if the rule laid down be correct, should be dated about 1720-40. It was therefore both puzzling and annoying to find a year late in the seventeenth century engraved upon it. But on inquiry it appeared that the lid was a restoration, the original one having vanished long since. The restorer had added a shape of lid thirty or forty years too late. PLATE V. — A CENTURY OF OVAL SPOONS. PLATE VI. — NORWEGIAN TANKARDS. Tankards like these five are plentiful enough. English silversmiths emigrated to this country, and did as good work here as at home. As we learn the names and marks of these men, and can thus identify their work, why is it not, for us at least, as valuable and interesting as any other ? What we need is a careful list of such workmen, with their dates and the marks they struck. Mr. .Buck has made a beginning at this in his volume on Old Plate, of which an enlarged edition is promised. But it needs a vast amount of work. The town records should be searched on the one hand, and thou sands of examples of Amer ican-made plate should be catalogued and collated on the other, as Rosenberg has done for Germany. When we are able to identify the makers' marks on nine-tenths of the American-made plate treasured in our colonial families, thus learning where and between what dates it must have PLATE VIII.— THE PUZZLING TANKARD AND THE REVOLUTIONARY MUG. PLATE VII. — DUTCH AND GERMAN SPOONS. been made, it should have in our eyes a value such as no foreign plate of the same age can boast. Tankards were not the only drinking- vessels of the last centu ry. The graceful two- handled cup of its first quarter, tlie wine-tum- bl er , and tb e m u g of Re v- olutionary times (Plate VIII.) are also found, and, chiefly on the Con tinent, the beaker. Here, for instance, Plates IV. and XIL, are figured eight of the first- mentioned, technically known as caudle-cups— all, save one, made by John Dix well, of Boston, son of the regicide, and still in use on the com munion table of a New England church. They OLD SILVER. 581 date from 1670 to 1720, or a little later. The wine- tumbler, also called wine bowl, can still be picked up for no very extrav agant sum in Norway or Germany (Plate IL). The distinguishing mark of German plate is an elongated zigzag ~~v~,. Tothis aregenerallyadd- ed a city stamp and the maker's mark. Thus the Augsburg silversmiths used a pine cone, which indicated the' period by- its shape. The stamp of Nuremberg was an ® ; of Mayence, a wheel ; of Berne, a bear; of Bres- lau, a (w). These wine -tumblers are usually silver-gilt. They are not much decorated, having at utmost a deli cate engraved border or initials in scroll. A few of different sizes nest very com fortably together in a luncheon-basket, but make no great show in our Plate. They date from 1650 to 1750. The last piece in the row is the English equiva lent of these wine-tumblers, with a flat bottom and higher sides, more distinctive ly a tumbler and less a cup in the mod ern sense. It was made in Dublin in 1775. Silver tumblers of this shape and of Amer ican origin are found here and there. They were occasionally a part of the camp kit of our Revolutionary officers. The beaker was a more important, a PLATE IX — AN EARLY TYPE. more highly decorated vessel. Two are given in Plate III., both of German make, the taller one being especially charming in shape and ornamentation; it probably antedates 1600. These beakers are to be preferred to those of a chalice shape with a standard and commonly a cover. This latter form has been widely reproduced in Germany. Tankards have suffered also from this imitation, being even broken and repaired to carry out the de ception. Norway is an offender too, and Holland most of all. Probably nine- tenths of the old Dutch toys, trinkets, com fit-boxes, and bag clasps which are on sale are brand-new. The two central pieces in Plate XI. are PLATE X. — LONDON SILVER OP THE LAST CENTURY. 582 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. what are called in this country porrin gers, but this is a misnomer. The true porringer is very like a caudle-cup in the two ears or handles and in size, but the sides are straight instead of bellying, and there is usually a cover. A London por ringer of 1699, with the fluting character istic of the article and the period, is figured in the upper part of Plate III. Our so- called porringers are really saucepans for warming a posset on the embers. They may be found in England, thougli I do not recall one either in the shops or in tlie South Kensington Museum, which con- two here given, left of Plate XL, was made in New York by Gardiner early in the present century, and can therefore be called old only by courtesy ; the other is fifty years earlier, and bears the hall mark of Newcastle-on-Tyne. In the same Plate, in mid-air, is a graceful little cream- jug bearing the stamp of P. Revere. The shape is a common one, and has been much reproduced; its peculiarity lies in its solidity, for it must weigh one-half more than the modern imitations. Before leaving this Plate it may be worth while to notice the two little punch- PLATE XI. — SAUCE-BOATS AND SAUCEPANS. tains a really splendid collection of old English plate and many excellent foreign examples. However, these saucepans are common in this country, and make a very graceful and sensible utensil, though the handle must, grow hot before the posset does. To avoid this were made sauce pans of other shapes, like the two on the right of Plate XL, the larger being a late London piece with detachable cover; the other, a little thing in repousse, used for warming brandy. The familiar sauce-boat was quite a dif ferent thing. Its shape has been much imitated in porcelain. The larger of the ladles, one oval, the other round but with a nose, and both having, like most of their numerous class, twisted whalebone handles. These punch-ladles are rarelv hall-marked, though often dated by a coin let in, and, so far as my information goes, were seldom made in this country. Very different from these is the ladle in the centre of Plate X., bowl and handle be ing m the same plane, and the whole heavy enough to brain a burglar with. It has the London date letter of 1729. The salts and snuffers and tray in the same Plate are not especially noteworthv though snuffers were commonly of plated PLATE XII. — CAUDLE-CUPS NOW IN USE AS COMMUNION CUPS. ware, and the larger salts stand on four legs instead of the usual tripod, and are probably Italian. The two-handled punch-strainer sug gests its uses clearly, and is not a com mon piece, though of no great age. The tea-caddy on the left, however (London, 1781), is a pretty bit, and a good example of the etched decoration so popular dur ing the second half of the last century. Three Plates of spoons are given (V, VII., and XIII.), for the subject is an in teresting one. Two centuries are repre sented, the seventeenth and eighteenth. Of course the round-bowl spoon belongs to the earlier. Plate XIII. represents Nor wegian spoons exclusively; those in VII. are Dutch and German. No difference in shape of bowl appears between the makes of different nations, but the Nor wegian spoons usually have a flat handle with etched ornament, while the German stems are solider and rounder, depending upon their form, and not upon the en graver, for effect. Horn bowls with a silver handle rivet ed on were common. More rarely handle and bowl, though both of silver, were made separately, and then fastened, while in the next century this practice became usual. Roughly speaking, the year 1700 is the dividing-line between the round and the oval bowl. Plate V. shows a century of the latter, from about 1710 to 1810. During the first half of this period the distinguishing features were a broader handle, often slit at the end, a bowl more nearly ellipsoid than oval, and the ridge of union between bowl and handle, which is commonly known as a rat-tail. This doubtless sprang from the practice PLATE XIII. — NORWEGIAN SPOONS. 1 PLATE XIV. — EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SILVER. alluded to of welding or riveting the parts together, but survived in a rudi mentary state after the spoon was com monly made one solid whole. It is still often employed as a shoulder to strength en the point of union, the tail being ab breviated. During the latter half of the century the bowl became a pure oval, the handle usually being decorated with the etched ornament characteristic of the period. This same ornament is shown on the salver in Plate XIV. and the tea-caddy, Plate X. The last article on Plate V. is an old English marrow-spoon, V539» PLATE XV.— LONDON CANDLESTICKS the narrow bowl of which is also found in combination with an oval one. Three bowls only are figured here, Plates XIV. and XV., but they are suffi ciently common, and with a great variety of decoration, to which this shape lends itself. Except for its ears, one of those in Plate XIV., however, is entirely plain. Its lack of a foot or stand would seem to indicate a good deal more age than have the others, which date from 1780 to 1790. All are of American workmanship. Candlesticks, like snuffers, are com monly plated, but those in Plate XV. are of London make and mark, and well executed. They lack, however, a broader detachable top, or bobecbe, which has been stolen. Plate XVI. figures a bread - basket (London, 1737). This is a very perfect and fine example of the cut sil ver so popular in Eng land in the middle of the last century, when Paul Lamerie flourished. A companion piece lo this basket, made ten years later for the wife of Governor Hancock, of Boston, is in the hands of a connection of that family. This OLD SILVER. 585 form of decoration, simple in itself, but producing effects of great richness, was much used in flat articles like trays and salvers, and has been deservedly re vived. The tea service and coffee-pot of our great-grandmothers' time are so familiar that no examples have been given. The common shapes are round, or oblong with rounded corners ; the decoration of infinite variety ; stands are usual, and the handles original note of its own, may still be found in the shops of the silversmiths abroad, brought in for sale or exchange. They lend a pleasant touch to a woman's costume or a fine old binding, and it is al ways more satisfactory to buy in this way than from the dealers in antiquities. The communion plate in many of the older churches in this country is of con siderable age and interest, but has been already elsewhere figured and discussed.* PLATE XVI. — AN OLD BREAD-BASKET. of the pots are either of ebony, or of silver insulated by a ring of bone let in. On Plate IX. is given a teapot of an earlier type, which in shape and balance and "feeling" is quite the ideal of what an ancestral teapot should be. On the last of our Plates is grouped a lot of clasps framed in by a silver chain or girdle. The objects on the right are cloak or belt clasps, and, except one, are Norwegian; those on the left are book clasps and German. In the centre is that rara avis a genuine Dutch bag clasp. Such articles as these, trivial in them selves, but each with an individuality, an Vol. XCIII.-No. 556.-6» It is referred to here only to call attention to one fact. In the Episcopal churches the conventional shapes of chalice, paten, and flagon were quite strictly adhered to. On the contrary, in New England one may still see in use in many of the older non- Episcopal houses of worship the domestic drinking - vessels of the past — tankards, caudle -cups, tumblers. By gift or be quest they came straight from secular to sacramental use — from the table of the giver to the table of the Lord. This dis regard of the conventionalism of the * Old Plate. J. H. Buck. 1888. The Gorham Manufacturing Company. 586 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. Church of England and its derivative, this protest against its forms, is charac teristic and interesting. Besides articles in which silver is the sole constituent, it enters into the deco ration or composition of many others which the fancier prizes. The mounting of an old table-knife, dagger, or sword, the inlaid-work on a Spanish bit, combi nations with wood, with ivory, with other metals, illustrate how excellent a thing it is in the arts. This kind of bimetallism is entirely harmless. There are two remarks with which this very cursory study of the domestic plate of two centuries may be appropriately closed. The one is addressed to the col lector. Old silver has a color, a touch, a feeling, peculiar to itself. The genuine ness of a piece must be determined by a study of these points, as well as of the style, the marks of wear, and the history. It is only by the examination, the hand ling if possible, of a large number of specimens that one can gain accurate knowledge of these qualities. The second remark is a deduction from the first. Such examination can only be possible where collections, permanent or tempo rary, are exposed to view. Rosenberg, al ready alluded to, has made his admirable study of the old silver of his father-land by taking advantage of the large loan ex hibitions of such articles which have been held within the past fifteen years at Am sterdam, Augsburg, Brussels, Karlsruhe, Nuremberg, St. Petersburg, Buda-Pesth, Vienna, and Zurich, as well as of royal and private collections. His ten thousand examples have furnished two thousand marks. This will indicate how alone a satisfactory history of old American plate and its makers can be made. The older centres, under proper precautions, could gather all available material by loan, and allow access to it to competent persons. The amount of old American-made plate in existence is probably larger than any one but the careful student of early in ventories would credit. A proper history of such plate, its marks and its makers, would give it a historical, artistic, and commercial value which must always otherwise be lacking. PLATE XVH.— OLD SILVER CLASPS. Xonbon Iball /Ifoarfcs on Silver flMate l Leopard's head crowned 2 Maker's mark 3 Date Letter 4 Lion Passant. Honbon 1ball Marks on Silver flMate I Leopard's .head crowned 4- Lion Passant fr: )696 erased substituted for 15 IS & w n 1675 16761677. 1678 1673 1680 m\\m "^to 1686 1687 5181 5 Wm 51 s 1688 1689 1690 16911692 1693 16341 is 1696 1696 169? 1698 1693 15 W 5) 15 151gl 1700 1701 is 1703 no* 1705 1706 1707 17081709 1710 1711 1712 ^1l7^eDrslmarK 3 Date Letter fci^]/^?^pl^an2ia *3nd Lions head Leopards head and Lion Passant. ILonbon 10all /Ifoarfcs on Silver flMate Ii & 17 II uj f» 715 D 5 w H. ¦» i 716 717 718719 720 721 722 723 724 725 1726 — i — uJ O Nil ™ Q|l729 Q 8 y a 1 Leopard's heac 1730 1731 1732 1733 17341735 1736 17371738 d I ii —\r- —v— n --v— 151 -v-I 739 740 741 74Z 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 CD s 752 753 754 755 a im 1838 1839 18401841 1842 % •*j € m w\ m m , 2 Makers ma.rk 1843 1844 1845 18461847 1848 1819 I850 I85! I852 I853I854 I855 m ¦XJ SI (B 3 Date Letter, 4 Lion Passant; SSovSefinS head Leopards head without a crown [rf;?82S 1856 1857 1858 1859 I860 1861 18621863 1864 18651866 1867 1868 I