My Family Silver

I’ve now checked out the crests I was shown at The Original Miami Beach Antiques Show using Crestfinder (the magical and unique function on myfamilysilver.com). I’ll start with an armorial I saw on a smart pair of silver tureen covers offered by one of the dealers (as shown here):

As you can see, the crest consists of the upper figure of a woman holding a tower and some sort of plant. A search in crestfinder (which I can do, but you can’t yet…) using the simple terms “woman, castle” turns up a couple of crests including, as you can see, the one (on the left) we were looking at:

This crest, with small variations, is carried by a number of families including Aitkinson and Bailey. However, by checking the motto below the engraved armorial (“Cause caused it”) against the results we can (hey presto!) firmly attribute the crest to the Elphinstone family as shown here:

Now the dealer has a whole new way of promoting and adding value to his item (and the Elphinstones can buy back the family silver). Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Soon: Another crest challenge from Miami….

I’m writing this from the departure lounge at Miami airport after an exhausting but hugely enjoyable couple of days at the Miami Beach Antiques Show introducing My Family Silver to the American trade. It’s hard to describe just how vast this show is so here’s an image..

A thousand dealers from around the world congregate in the cavernous arena, and distracting muzak, of the city’s convention center to furiously trade and barter (most business is done before the event is even open to the public!). As I pounded up and down the aisles I spotted many friends from the London trade who even in these trying times (and with the dollar stuck firmly against them) reported good sales. Elegant and sophisticated it is not – but as a means of doing business it’s second to none.

I met and spoke with about fifty silver dealers from the US representing states across the country and none of whom I’d met before. Without exception, they listened with great interest and patience as I introduced our business. Like the London trade, they instantly saw the huge benefit of being able to identify, and then promote, silver engraved with a family crest. Several challenged me (and crestfinder) to identify the crests on some items on their stands! Unpertubed, I will post my results in a follow up post – illustrated with some photos of the mystery crests, of course.

In fact, in conversation with the dealers, I was struck once again by the wide ranging application of crestfinder. For example, during the show I was shown several pieces of armorial porcelain and glass – the identification of which by family name would add huge value and interest. Most importantly it will give the dealers another valuable route to explore when selling their stock.

OK – there’s my call (BA on time!) so I’m off. More on Miami next time – but with a few more weeks to go before My Family Silver goes live it does feel that it is already international!