International studio (30.1906/1907(1907))

American Colonial Silver

and no better centre could be found for bringing
together worthy specimens of the craft to-day.
Two facts preeminently contributed to this result:
the lively ocean trade with old England and the
West Indies, which distributed the colony’s wealth
more evenly, perhaps, than was the case in other
colonies under different economic conditions, and
the fluctuations and the depreciations in value of
the colony’s currency. Coin was funded into the
permanent form of spoons and mugs and teapots,
and in times of stress would be run back into shil-
lings. In the Revolution silver went the same road
into the purse as pewter into the musket. But if
the trade of the silversmith, or the goldsmith, as he
was better known at that time, flourished beyond
the ordinary in Boston, he was busy in other towns
as well. It is more than probable that a fine dis-
play could be brought together in New York City
from among the treasures of the old families.
And few exhibitions could be planned of more
value. The old silver is important as showing the
state of the craft in the period and as affording
to the designer, in its characteristic style, the
stimulus of worthy and delightful models. That
the Boston show has been properly catalogued
must be another great satisfaction to any one
interested in the subject. The catalogue itself,
on which no technical pains have been spared, and
with which every typographic care has been taken,
will perpetuate the utility of a collection not likely
soon to be brought together again and will serve
in many ways as a valuable record. The catalogue
has been prepared and seen through the press by
Mr. R. T. H. Halsey, of this city. It lists in all the
names of over four hundred American silversmiths
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and
practically all of the 330 pieces in the exhibition
are illustrated in the photographs. The printing
has been done by the Gillis Press. Mr. John H.
Buck, curator of metal work at the Metropolitan
Museum, contributes a “Technical Description”
of the exhibits.
It is this latter division of the subject which will
claim our first interest in considering the actual
practise of the craft. A document of great illustra-
tive value, which it would be well to examine, is
the following “inventory of John Burt,” one of the
ninety silversmiths represented in the exhibition:

INVENTORY OF JOHN BURT
{Taken March 20, 1745-46)
316 oz. 4 pwt. of Silver @ 36/ p. oz., £560.3/. Gold, 18
oz. 12 pwt. @ £27 p. oz., £500.17/. 1070
Cash £100—33 oz. of Correll @ 20/ per oz., £33. 133
3 pair of stone earrings & 3 sett of stone buttons, £30. a
parcell of old stones, £7. 37

£ s. d.
a parcell of Christalls for Buttons & Earrings. 32
a parcell of old stone work. 5
2 Show Glasses, £5.0/. 53 pair of Chapes and Tongs,
£10.2/. 15 2 ..
11 Files, 33/. a pair of large and small bellows, 40/... . 3 13
a large Forgin Anvil, 120 Id., @ 2/6p., £15. 1 small do.,
£9. 24 ..
9 raising Anvils, 217 Id. @ 3/6 p. Id., £37.19.6. 2 Plan-
ishing Teaster, 39 Id. @ 3/6, £6.16.6. 44 16 ..
2 Spoon Teaster, £26. 2 Planishing ditto, 25/. 3 bench
vises, £12. 39 5
9 small vises, 45/. 2 beak irons, 20/. 40 hammers @
8/ pr. hammer, 18.16.10. 22 1
2 Melting skillets, £5. 37 bottom stakes & punches, 155
@ 4/. £31. 36 .. ..
a Drawing bench & tongs, 40/. n Drawing Irons, £11.
10 pairs of shears, £6. 19
2 brass Hollowin stamps, £5. a pair of brass salt punches,
3°/.-. 6 10
1 Thimble Stamp, £4.10/. 6 pr. of flasks for casting,
£4/10.-. 9 -- --
15 prs. of Tongs & plyers @ 5/ a pr., 75/. a pair of large
scales and weights ,£8. 11 15
4 pair of small scales & weights, 40/. pewter and lead
moulds, 85 Id. @ 1/6, £6.7.6. 876
36 old files, 18/. 12 strainers, 12/. 1 Oyl Stove, 25/. 3
small saws, 25. 4 ..
4 boreax boxes, 5/. 3 burnishers, 20/. 1 Triblet, 10/.
2 boiling pans, 60/. 4 15
a parcell of punches, £5. 1 Touchstone. 5/. 5 5

Burt belonged to the later group of silversmiths.
He left behind him two sons, Samuel and Benjamin,
excellent craftsmen. The Burts, with the Hinds
and Reveres, more or less controlled the trade in
Boston. John Burt’s estate, amounting to .£6,460,
4s. 9d., represents an enormous fortune for the
time. His equipment may be taken as presumably
complete. From the list of tools above, Mr. Halsey
adds a note deducing the processes followed.
The methods of fashioning the silver can be
traced with much clearness in the inventory. It is
plain that the bullion was melted and refined in
boiling pans, the fineness of the alloy being tested
by rubbing on a touchstone, and the resultant
streak compared with a streak obtained from
silver of known quality. The metal was then re-
melted and run into a skillet. It would come out
in a rectangular form, somewhat thinner than an
ingot. In making hollowware the form was rolled
out or hammered out on a forging anvil into
sheets. For making a cup a circle was cut out of
a sheet of metal with saws or shears, the diameter
somewhat larger than the size required. This piece
was then hammered, with frequent annealings over
a teaster, to the form of a bowl, or over raising
anvils or bellying anvils into the form desired. For
work upon the inside, beak irons were used—an-
vils with long horns or beaks. The stakes were
much used in shaping. They were small, moveable
anvils of various shapes standing on small iron feet
on the work bench. The hammers and planishing
anvils were the instruments of one of the charac-
teristic beauties of the Colonial silver, the brilliant

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