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?
Denne historien er fra November 29, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra November 29, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds