GREAT IRISH HOUSEHOLDS Inventories from the Long Eighteenth Century The value of inventories in charting how houses were arranged, furnished and used is now widely appreciated. Typically, the listings and valuations were occasioned by the death of an owner and the consequent need to deal with testamentary dispositions. That was not always so. The inventory for Castlecomer House, Co. Kilkenny, for example, was drawn up to make a claim following the house’s devastation in the 1798 uprising. Mostly hitherto unpublished, the inventories show the evolving collecting habits and tastes of eighteenth-century patrons across Ireland and how the interiors of great town and country houses were arranged or responded to new materials and new ideas. Among the houses where silver is listed are Baronscourt, Castlecomer House, Dublin Castle (2nd Duke of Ormonde’s plate), Mount Stewart and Newbridge House. A comprehensive index facilitates access to the myriad items, including the silver, within the inventories. A foreword, together with preambles to the inventories, sets the households in their [Read More]

John Reckless has held a long-standing interest in antique kitchenalia. His fascination with nutmeg paraphernalia was spurred by the discovery of a cast iron mechanical grater about three decades ago. Collecting and researching nutmeg and graters has given Reckless the opportunity to delve deeper into areas of social and historical interest. Nutmeg: Graters, Pomanders and Spice Boxes Luxury and utility from the 16th century to the present day John Reckless ISBN Publisher Binding Territory Size Pages Price 9781788841450 ACC Art Books Hardback World 300 mm x 237 mm 312 Pages £50.00 Nutmeg_ Graters, Pomanders and Spice Boxes – 9781788841450 copy

Authors: John L. Davis & Gordon Hamme This book brings together two expansive collections of silver objects, the ‘Lion’ collection and the ‘Hamme’ collection. The ‘Lion’ collection provides a broad overview of beautiful silver objects made by a great variety of British contemporary silversmiths. It is divided between holloware, caddy spoons and napkin rings. Part of the collection revolves around the theme of lions, because the lion image bears a resemblance to the collector’s family history. The Hamme collection is a spectacular array of ‘hero’ pieces and commissions that demonstrate some of the best of each silversmith’s work. With more than 500 images, Contemporary British Silver Designers shares some of the finest work crafted by 21st- century silversmiths. Over 500 illustrated examples of the best of modern silver design Contains interviews with several top contemporary silver designers Foreword by Alastair Dickenson, Introduction by John Andrews. The publisher has offered 35% discount off the RRP (making it £29.25 to Silver Society members). There is a charge [Read More]

Author: Tessa Murdoch This richly illustrated book focuses on the extraordinary international networks resulting from the diaspora of more than 200,000 refugees who left France in the late 17th century to join communities already in exile spread far and wide. First-generation Huguenot refugees included hundreds of trained artists, designers, and craftsmen. Beyond the French borders, they raised the quality of design and workshop practice, passing on skills to their apprentices; sons, godsons, cousins, and to successive generations, who continued to dominate output in the luxury trades. Although silver and silks are the best-known fields with which Huguenot settlers are associated, their significant contribution to architecture, ceramics, design, clock and watchmaking, engraving, furniture, woodwork, sculpture, portraiture, and art education provides fascinating insight into the motivation and resolve of this highly skilled diaspora. Thanks to a sophisticated network of Huguenot merchants, retailers, and bankers who financed their production, their wares reached a global market. PAGES 320.  DIMENSIONS 24.46cm x 28.58cm. ISBN. 9781838510121  PRODUCT CODE. 162456 https://www.vam.ac.uk/shop/search?q=Tessa%20Murdoch Discount to V&A members

Published as a 290 x 224 mm hardback by Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd on 12th April 2021; 190 pp, 268 images. Available from Amazon, Waterstones and Blackwell’s. Given scant attention in most guides to antique silver and rarely illustrated in pre-internet auction catalogues, lemon strainers (sometimes called orange or punch strainers) are beautiful and very collectable bygones of Georgian England, Ireland, Scotland and America, which have survived to this day in surprising numbers, almost two hundred years after last being used in the preparation of punch. Drawing from a database of nearly 900 examples, the book looks generally at the ways they may have been used, their relative desirabilities and their marks and heraldic devices, and classifies them into different groupings in each of their centres of production, describing each one in detail to show the fascinating diversity and evolution of their bowl piercing patterns and handle shapes. Oddities, including fakes, are included. RRP is £14.99 on special offer at Amazon and Blackwell’s at [Read More]

Linda Barnes & Gordon Hamme have collaborated on writing the life story of the world class enameller Phil Barnes. Barnes had always intended to publish an account of life in the workshop not only as a personal history but as an important social history of the jewellery trade. The text includes his written record and information transcribed from a series of interviews he recorded with Gordon for his PhD. Phil Barnes began his enamelling career in 1967, at the age of fifteen, following in his father’s footsteps. He completed his apprenticeship with his father’s company in 1971, winning the coveted Jaques Cartier “Craftsman of the Year” Memorial Award in the same year. He went on to become a working partner in the business and later set up his own workshop in Clapham, London following his father’s retirement in 1983. The book is a record of Phil Barnes’ working life and career, a master in the art of engraving and enamelling, which is richly illustrated [Read More]

Irish silver, for long renowned among collectors and connoisseurs, is increasingly being considered as an aspect of the material world of the past. Its making, acquisition and use tells much about past attitudes and behaviour. At the same time, careful examination of surviving articles not only adds to appreciation of the design and craftsmanship but also to Ireland’s participation in international fashions.This volume, with new research by established and emerging scholars from Ireland and the UK, advances the study across a broad range of themes.The contributions examine the circumstances in which silver objects were made, sold, valued and dispersed in Georgian Ireland. It considers specialized branches of the trade including the production of freedom boxes and jewellery, the sourcing of metals and materials, the value of inventories as evidence and regional patterns and preferences. This book builds on recent literature on the history of silver, second-hand markets, guilds and luxury goods, to recover and reconsider Ireland’s silversmithing. Alison FitzGerald is Associate Professor in History at [Read More]

By the time of his death, Henry VIII had amassed one of the most spectacular collections of gold and silver of any British monarch. But nearly all of these holdings were destroyed over the following century, and no more than a handful have survived to modern times. This book makes use of the wealth of surviving documentation to explore this lost collection and the light it sheds on the monarchy. For full details please follow this link. This scholarly and lavishly illustrated book is available at £45 or $80. But please consult the publisher’s website for special offers.

ISBN 978-87-90975-31-9. Publisher contact adh.vhs@gmail.com. 640 pages divided into two volumes covered with beautiful photographs of all 400 objects and delivered in a hard cassette. £80 plus postage. The book covers an essential part of Niels Arthur Andersen’s private silver collection with particular emphasis on the provenance of each object.  A group of four Danish scientists have written about each of their areas of expertise in silver.  All articles have been translated into English.

Birmingham City University. £5 e-book. This publication critically explores the revival of British fine metalwork by designer-makers since roughly the 1970s. It demonstrates many strengths: the increase in that period in the number of practitioners, the creative use of a wider range of metals, the supplementing of traditional techniques with newer ones, design innovation and a wide range of products, with much emphasis on art objects; all of that, taken together, has transformed the craft. This success has been underpinned by a number of supports: government initiatives, assay offices, livery companies, professional associations, exhibitions and education, though there are increasing concerns about the availability of funding for craft teaching. That, and pressures created by periods of economic difficulty, offer challenges to a craft which is expensive, and raise anxieties about the future. But over the period covered by the book, Britain has re-established fine metalwork and has earned itself a strong international reputation. The book is substantial, scholarly and attractive. It contains roughly 70,000 [Read More]