Buyers Guide to Silver
Ever since it was discovered, silver has been considered a precious material and modeled into highly decorative items and personal objects. Possessing silver items has always been regarded as a sign of wealth and status symbol.
As highly decorative and malleable material, silver has been used throughout history and across styles, from Roman Art to Rococo to Art Deco to contemporary design. Items of the most disparate dimensions and different uses have been created, from grand candelabra and large serving dishes, to cutlery and tea sets, to small personal items, as match-cases and pillboxes.
Metal and techniques
Marks
To guarantee the quality of silver, assay marks were introduced in England in the 14th century. On English silver, the mark for sterling silver, a lion passant, is accompanied by the hallmarks identifying the town and the year of production and the maker’s mark. American silver is simply marked ‘sterling’ followed by the maker’s mark. Assay marks can be of great help to the collector in the identification of the silver items and different guides to assay marks have been published.