SILVERWARE—most take it for granted, some collect it and still others pack it away in cupboards and drawers, if only to minimise the cleaning. Since that ruckus with Charles I about exactly how divine he was, we Britons haven’t needed to melt down domestic silver to pay soldiers and are, therefore, blessed with an abundance. It would have been much more if our forebears hadn’t treated family silver as an inflation fighter—when prices got too high, they melted it down and, when prices were low and silver abundant, they stocked up on newly minted and fashioned pieces.
A quick rummage through that drawer may produce some surprises. If you don’t have such a drawer, a visit to an auction house is the answer—local, rather than online, as, despite the high-resolution images and in-depth descriptions, it’s really instructive to handle silverware before you buy.
What you are most likely to find is silver produced in the past 300 years. Any earlier and you have a treasure—possibly, if of high enough quality, even a national treasure.
How valuable the contents of your drawer are in trade terms depends on what it is, when it was made, who made it and its weight. It also depends on how well it was made and its rarity. How valuable it is to you depends on something a little less complex: do you enjoy it and can you either use or collect it?
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Don't rain on Venus's parade
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A rural reason to cheer
THERE was something particularly special for country people when one of the prestigious Kingâs Awards for Voluntary Service was presented last week.
My heart is in the Highlands
A LISTAIR MOFFATâS many books on Scottish history are distinctive for the way he weaves poetry and literature, language and personal experience into broad-sweeping studies of particular regions or themes. In his latestâ and among his most ambitious in scopeâhe juxtaposes a passage from MacMhaighstir Alasdairâs great sea poem Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill with his own account of filming a replica birlinn (Hebridean galley) as it glides into the Sound of Mull, âlarch strakes swept up to a high prowâ, saffron sail billowing, water sparkling as its oars dip and splash. Familiar from medieval tomb carvings, the birlinn is a potent symbol of the power of the Lords of the Isles.
Put it in print
Three sales furnished with the ever-rarer paper catalogues featured intriguing lots, including a North Carolina map by John Ogilby and a wine glass gibbeting Admiral Byng, the unfortunate scapegoat for the British loss of Minorca
The rake's progress
Good looks, a flair for the theatrical and an excellent marriage made John Astleyâs fortune, but also swayed âle Titien Angloisâ away from painting into a dissolute life of wine and women, with some collecting on the side
Charter me this
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Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to sow we go
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Floreat Etona
The link with the school and horticulture goes back to its royal founder, finds George Plumptre on a visit to the recently restored gardens
All in good time
Two decades in the planning, The Emory, designed by Sir Richard Rogers, is open. Think of it as a sieve that retains the best of contemporary hotel-keeping and lets the empty banality flow away
Come on down, the water's fine
Ratty might have preferred a picnic, but canalside fine dining is proving the key to success for new restaurant openings in east London today, finds Gilly Hopper