In the great silver exhibition recently held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, of more than one thousand pieces, there were only two forks to be found.

Great skill was developed by the early silversmiths of England and America. The purity and gracefulness of design in many cases remain as standards for our best craftsmen today. It is, however, erroneous to suppose that all of the ornamentation was done by hand.

Ornaments on the back of spoon bowls and handles were impressed by dies forced together by drop presses or under screw pressure. This is absolutely proven by the exact duplication of the pattern on sets of spoons. Accurate measurements show that these ornaments were not handwork, for there is not the slightest deviation in dimensions.

But, however beautiful the silver of our forbears and however valuable now, from a historic standpoint, there are few of us who, if given the choice, would not decide in favor of the product of the twentieth century silversmith, who brings to his creations all of the good of the old masters, and who has the facilities for turning out work more perfect in line and detail and uniformity than was ever dreamed of by the silver worker of old.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRONTS AND BACKS OF TWO EARLY AMERICAN SPOONS OF THE RAT-TAIL TYPE

The spoon in the center is the earliest of that type, made about 1690.

The other dates about 1695.]

We admire the beautiful silverware that we see in the shop windows, we derive satisfaction and pleasure from the daily use of silver on our tables, but few people have any understanding how silver plate is made; and there is, perhaps, still less knowledge of its interesting history.

The combining of two separate metals--that is, the plating of a base metal with a finer one--was, until the eighteenth century, a lost art of the ancients.

The application of one metal upon another was practiced by the a.s.syrians, who overlapped iron with bronze; copper implements and ornaments coated with silver have been found at Herculaneum, while many ancient Roman specimens of harness and armor are found to be ornamented with silver on copper. The Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru used the process of fixing two metals together by the action of heat, before making up. The method was also known to the old Celts, as shown by specimens found in Iceland. It seems, however, to have been a lost art in Europe, probably because up to the thirteenth century the Church had control of the arts and crafts in England, and the finer metal work was used only for church vessels, the household implements being very simple and mostly of wood and cheap metal.

Horace Walpole, writing in 1760, states: "I pa.s.sed through Sheffield, a business town in a charming situation, with 22,000 inhabitants, and they remit 11,000 a week to London. One man there has discovered the art of plating copper with silver."

The inventor to whom the quotation refers was Thomas Bolsover, a skilled silversmith, who, in the year 1742, it is traditionally reported, while repairing a thin layer of silver on the copper handle of a knife, evolved the idea of combining copper with silver in layers ready for manufacture into any desired form.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TABLE AND TEASPOON WITH THE SO-CALLED COFFIN-SHAPED HANDLE

A shape peculiar to America. This type common from 1800 to 1815.

Reductions about one-half.]

Bolsover himself apparently did not appreciate the importance of this invention, and it remained for Joseph Hanc.o.c.k, one of his apprentices, to develop the idea to a commercial success. He vigorously encouraged the trade in Sheffield, Birmingham and other manufacturing centers, and finally constructed a rolling-mill and made his fortune by supplying the plate to the silversmiths.

The earlier specimens of this Sheffield plate, as it came to be known, had the silver on one side of the copper only, but later attempts were made to improve the appearance of finer pieces by covering the underside of the copper with tin.

Crude as this idea and the old methods of manufacture may seem, compared with modern processes, this old plate found a ready sale. It replaced in many households pewter ware which, until the introduction of Sheffield plate, was the best subst.i.tute for sterling silver. It became fashionable for everyday use by the n.o.bility and wealthier families, who put aside their solid silverware to be used on state occasions only. The name "plate," which is from the Spanish word _platte_, came to be used generally to designate the imitation of solid silver.

This plate, being such a close imitation of solid silver, was not permitted by the laws of England to bear any stamp whatever prior to 1773, when the town of Sheffield was specially privileged to put upon its product the marks of the makers. These marks, however, were not to bear any resemblance of the lion or leopard's head, these being the hall-marks of England.

It was not until 1785 that this privilege was extended to the town of Birmingham and other manufacturing centers.

It is curious to note that this law against the imitation of silver, which really dated from the fifteenth century, made a special exception to articles made for the Church.

Sometimes this old Sheffield plate, in addition to bearing the maker's name, bore the name of the lord or earl for whom it was made, and today these old pieces are more highly valued by their owners than silver which is intrinsically more valuable.

Much of the charm of old plate was in its beauty of form and design, for the work attracted the best of English artisans. It would appear, too, that they were fairly well paid for their labor, as Pepys, in his "Diary," refers to a present made him of a pair of flagons which cost 100. "They are said to be worth five shillings, some say ten shillings, an ounce for the fashion."

[Ill.u.s.tration: MODERN DESIGNS]

The first notable improvement over the Sheffield work came toward the middle of the nineteenth century, when electro-silver plating was first practiced and, in 1847, commercially perfected, by Rogers Brothers of Hartford, Conn.

The marvelous force of electricity was brought to bear on the making of silver-plated knives, forks, spoons, etc., as well as hollow-ware articles, such as coffee and tea pots, water pitchers, sugar bowls and platters. Instead of these articles being made of sheets of rolled copper and silver, a silver plate of any desired thickness is applied to the base metal by electricity.

This quick and less expensive method of manufacture rendered silver plate available to all cla.s.ses, and the Sheffield plate was quickly superseded, the old method of manufacture becoming obsolete.

While the process of manufacture was cheapened, the newer craftsmen wisely held to the art standards of the old masters. With the new process came the perfection of modern construction, and the cost is so much less than in the old days that a perfect table service of authentic design, of quality beyond question and guaranteed in every respect, is within the reach of any well-to-do family. Many of the old family pieces of Sheffield have found their way into the melting pot in exchange for the modern electro-plated silverware.

The making of silver-plated flatware is an interesting process and one that requires a great amount of skill and care. The finished teaspoon, as it lies in the show-case or chest, is the result of over thirty distinct operations, while a plain silver-plated steel knife has pa.s.sed through thirty-six stages in its evolution from the bit of steel rod, in which shape it begins its journey. Some of the more important steps in the making of a spoon are briefly described below:

The Blank.

The metal underlying the silver plate of the best plated teaspoons is of nickel silver, a trade name for a metal composed of nickel, copper and zinc. This metal is procured in sheet form of varying lengths. From this sheet is cut a blank, which bears little resemblance to a spoon, being about half the length of the finished article and very much wider.

Squeezed.

The blank is then "squeezed," which gives to the part that is to become the handle a little more of the appearance that it will have later.

Rolling.

This "squeezed" blank is then pa.s.sed through a series of steel rolls, giving length to the handle and width to the bowl, and distributing the metal according to the correct thickness--that is, the bowl will be thin and the shank thick.

Clipping.

The next process is termed "clipping," the spoon being cut out from the blank in the correct outline of the pattern.

Annealing.

The process of rolling the metal has so compressed the latter that it cannot be readily worked. It is necessary, therefore, that the spoon be annealed--that is, the shaped blanks are placed in an oven and brought to a red heat, which renders them malleable.

The Evolution of a Spoon.

From the crude blank of nickel silver to the finished spoon, there are over thirty distinct operations necessary, a few of the more important stages being ill.u.s.trated. When the spoon emerges from the plating solution (see No. 8), it is perfectly white and looks as if it had been treated with a heavy coat of enamel. It is then scratch-brushed, burnished and, in some patterns, the handle is greyed. After this, the spoon is buffed and finished.

Every operation is performed with the utmost care, and not until the piece is actually finished can this vigilance be relaxed, as it is the final processes that make the plating of pure silver an actual part of the spoon and insure its wearing qualities.

_Striking and Bowling._--The pattern is then stamped on the handle and the bowl is shaped.

_Tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, etc._--After the pattern and the bowl have been struck, there is usually a small burr left where the metal has oozed out between the dies. This is removed by tr.i.m.m.i.n.g. The trademark is then stamped on the back of the handle.

_Polishing._--The goods are put through various operations of polishing until they are brought to a high finish.

_Plating._--The articles to be plated are suspended in a frame in the silver solution. This frame is connected with the negative pole of a magneto-electro machine, while the silver is suspended in the solution from bars and connected with the positive or opposite pole of the machine, thereby forming a circuit for the electricity through the solution.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 1. The blank. 2. Squeezed. 3. Blank rolled. 4. Spoon cut from blank. 5. Design struck. 6. Bowl raised. 7. Trade-mark stamped. 8.

After plating. 9. The finished spoon.]