Quebec silver

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 1998 by Alfred Mayor

Birks was moved to begin collecting by the realization that as a result of the Depression much early Canadian silver was being melted down and that even ecclesiastical silver was being sold to generate money for the upkeep of the churches. He was a diligent student, seeking advice from everyone and setting himself precise goals from the beginning. His accession book is divided into eleven categories based on the provenance of the objects or, in special cases, the manufacturer. Quebec silver constituted the largest part of the collection, which also included such categories as "Unknown," "American," "English," "Foreign," and "Australia." For each object Birks gave the acquisition date, provenance, cost, weight, dimensions, marks, a description of the engraved motifs, and negative numbers for the objects that were photographed. In the end, Birks accumulated 7,091 silver objects.

Not coincidentally, the collection formed by the head of a large silver company could only enhance the image of the company, particularly since the family traced its origins to cutlers named Birks in what is now Sheffield, England, in the sixteenth century. This fact was first introduced in a history of the company entitled The House of Birks, published by the company in 1946. Nonetheless, Henry Birks was a genuine patriot bent on making his collection known to his countrymen, and as early as 1940 he began placing objects from the collection on deposit in museums around Canada.

Canadian silver, as reflected in the Birks Collection, shows the strong stylistic influence of French and English silver during the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century At that point the prevailing international enthusiasm for flora and fauna made itself evident with great gusto in Canadian silver. One of the more extreme manifestations is the trophy made by Birks's firm between 1910 and 1915 for the owner of the best rooster in one of the annual competitions of the Connecticut Valley Poultry Association in Vermont. It is a punch or eggnog bowl planted on four realistic rooster feet. At either end is a three-dimensional rooster perched on an acanthus leaf outcropping, while engraved within an elaborate cartouche on one side is a barnyard scene with a rooster and a hen communing amicably.

After Canada became a confederation on July 1, 1867, silversmiths sought a national style. The following year Queen Victoria granted coats of arms featuring maple leaves to both Ontario and Quebec, and before long naturalistic maple leaves joined the pantheon of decorative devices on Canadian silver. The maple leaf joined the ubiquitous squirrel and venerable beaver, which had appeared in a multiple of four on the coat of arms of the Hudson's Bay Company in the seventeenth century. Once again, these animals were rendered with great realism as finials, and, in the case of a Quebec commemorative trowel of 1871, the entire handle is comprised of a beaver stretched out on a branch and gnawing a small log.

No dimensions are given for the objects illustrated, which is the only drawback to a concise and panoramic survey of Canadian silver from the eighteenth century to the present day.