Metals for the fashion-conscious consumer

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2001 by John D. Davis

On November 2, 1749, Joseph Ball wrote from London to his niece, Elizabeth (Betty) Washington (1733-1797), in Virginia:

I have sent you by your brother Major [George] Washington a Tea Chest, and in it Six Silver Spoons, and Strainer and Tongs of the same. And in one canister one half pound Green Tea, and in the other as much Bohea, and the sugar box is full of sugar ready broke; so that, as soon as you get your chest you may sit down and drink a Dish of Tea. [1]

Betty Washington's tea chest was probably not dissimilar to the handsome London example shown in Plate VI. Such equipages m the rococo taste of the middle decades of the eighteenth century were meant to entice avaricious consumers of means with their mixture of scrollwork, exoticism, and fancy. They were also meant to be seen by others, so as to reflect well on the taste and fashionableness of the lady presiding over tea. Six months after her uncle's note was written, Betty Washington married Fielding Lewis (1725-1781), gaining heightened social prominence and a greater stake in her role at the tea table.

Betty Washington's tea chest is symbolic of the expanding flow of fashionable goods across the Atlantic during the eighteenth century Production increased and became more efficient in response to burgeoning demand. Manufacturers also devised less expensive alternatives in order to broaden their markets and to attract new customers.

Fused silverplate, commonly known as Sheffield plate, was the ideal medium For the new middle-class consumer, to whom both cost and appearance were crucial concerns. It is not surprising that the development of this industry did not take place in London but rather in the metalworking centers of Sheffield and Birmingham. Critical to the new industry was the development of better steel both for the polished rollers of a flatting mill that reduced silver-clad copper ingots to workable sheets, and for the dies that shaped the sheets and impressed ornament. During the middle decades of the century, Benjamin Huntsman (1704-1776) of Sheffield developed a more efficient process for producing hard steel of a uniform texture. A contemporary account praised the ability of the new steel to take on "the highest polish" and to "roll any kind of metal to a fine surface." It further claimed, "as to Dies there is no steel that can be made into a face of equal hardness or durability." [2]

Colonial Williamsburg has the finest collection of fused silverplate in this country. At its heart is the important collection formed by Lowry Dale Kirby, in which one of the great ensembles is the tea service shown in Plate V. Tea services of this size, date, and quality are extremely rare in silverplate. Subtly evident in this service are sophisticated solutions to the problems of edges and engraved decoration. The edges and joints are dressed with slender sterling silver wire, both plain and delicately gadrooned, which more durably conceals the copper at the edges than plated moldings. The wire also provides an appropriate sense of formality for objects in this tailored style.

A band of decorative engraving about an inch wide just below the rims or shoulders on all of the pieces in this service is of the conventional running foliate type that was engraved by the yard and applied, especially on neoclassical teawares, to give them an enhanced sense of unity and importance. In the late 1780s Roberts, Cadman and Company (1784-1826) of Sheffield introduced the use of bands of thicker silver on plated wares to accommodate the deep cutting of these fashionable borders. These bands were either applied over the bodies in relief or, as in this instance, soldered on as a flush extension of the plated body. Even though the pieces in this service are not marked with the name of the firm that made them, they are marked "SILVER EDG'D." This mark and the mark "SILVER EDGES" were used only by the manufacturers in Sheffield. Matthew Boulton of Birmingham preferred "S," "SILVER MOULDINGS," or "SILVER BORDERS." [3]

Sheffield shared the spotlight with Birmingham as the principal centers of the English base-metal trades. Birmingham is situated virtually in the center of England, just below Staffordshire in the northwest corner of Warwickshire. By the opening years of the eighteenth century, it bad become a thriving manufacturing and commercial city. Its population had increased rapidly, tripling during the second half of the seventeenth century to more than fifteen thousand by 1700, only to exceed seventy thousand by 1800.

The rapidly expanding trades in toys that is, small personal accessories--and a full range of household goods in various metals drove this dramatic growth. These trades churned out in ever more massive quantities a myriad of small objects for personal and domestic adornment and use. Birmingham toy production in 1759 had risen to a total value of [pound]600,000 annually, with the vast majority of the warn destined for export. Roughly half the trade was in buckles, with eight thousand people estimated to have been involved in their production in Birmingham and its environs. The toy trade was of such size that Edmund Burke (1729-1792) dubbed Birmingham "the great toy shop of Europe." [4]