My Family Silver

Christmas pattern novelties in electroplate: left, a cake basket,
the handle formed as naturalistically enamelled berried holly leaves,
Mappin & Webb of Sheffield, 1895; and, right, a ‘Robin’ pattern folding
’satchel’ biscuit box, probably made in Sheffield by Fenton Brothers
(using William Staniforth’s patent), retailed by
the Goldsmiths’ Alliance Ltd of London, circa 1885

Secrecy in the silver industry, especially in London in pre-World War I days, is largely responsible for the difficulty researchers have in uncovering so much about this fascinating trade. Details of workshop practices, designers and design sources, even the names of craftsmen, from working silversmiths to chasers and engravers, are all but lost. With the publication of the first specialist periodical, the The Goldsmith (1869-1872), however, we begin to hear of such as the trade’s progress and the tribulations of bankrupt goldsmiths and jewellers. Concerns arising from regular financial recessions are voiced, by workshop owners and representatives of the retail sector; conversely there are perennial reports of busy times, particularly in the weeks leading up to Christmas, when overtime had men – and women and sometimes children – at their benches from dawn to dusk, seven days a week.

In spite of this, the demand for silver and electroplate in seasonal patterns appears not to have been very strong, although jewellers did a brisk business in New Year brooches: 1-8-9-6, say, in gold or platinum, embellished with brilliants and pearls. Plenty of these survive but collectors of silver would be lucky to find many Christmas style cake baskets or biscuit boxes. Some silversmiths, especially Russian (Sasikov) and American (Tiffany and Gorham), produced remarkable designs in ‘Arctic’ vases, cups, tubs and wine coolers, with icebergs, frostfalls and polar bears, but these patterns were intended to emphasise the suitability of a vessel’s use rather than any reference to Yuletide.

design for an ‘Arctic’ pattern vase in silver or electroplate in a photograph of the 1860s/1870s
from a trade catalogue issued by Maison J. Casses, Séguin & Co of Paris;
polar bears, probably after models by Eugene J. Soligny, who spent his
early career in Paris, also appear on various silver vessels made by
Tiffany & Co, New York, in the late 1860s and 1870s.

• various items from Mappin & Webb, Fenton Brothers, the Goldsmiths’ Alliance (formerly A.B. Savory & Sons),  Tiffany & Co and Gorham are currently listed on myfamilysilver.com