For thousands of years, men and women have been captivated by silver's spell and by its splendor. A silver spoon has symbolized great fortune at least since the 17th century when Cervantes cleverly acknowledged that everyone wasn't born with one in his mouth.
Silver has adorned castles of kings, the knee buckles of Bobby Shaftoe, dining room tables and Christmas tree stars. It has dangled from the ears of elegant ladies and free-spirited women. It has linked the cuffs of powerful men and rattled in babies' hands. Silver has glowed in candlelight on antique sideboards and gleamed in the sun on tables filled with trophies.
To see what's happening today with one of the earth's most precious metals, we peeked into area stores and talked to some local people who keep a eye on the sterling silver market.
JEWELRY AND GIFTS
"Generally, women who buy silver are looking for a big fashion statement without the expense of gold," says Steve Weinstein, owner of Dahne and Weinstein. Tiffany designers Elsa Peretti and Paloma Picasso oblige with their designs, many of which can be had in both metals.
An open heart and a shape that closely resembles a lima bean are Ms. Peretti's signature looks. Her hearts and beans can be found as pendants, pins, earrings and even, in the case of the bean, on elegant, lady-like sterling ball point pens or as gentlemen's cuff links.
The scribble design, usually turning up as earrings or pins, is purely Picasso, as are her well-known x's and o's, or love and kisses. Ms. Picasso has also turned her dove designs into highly polished silver pins.
"One of the hottest looks is mixing gold and silver," says Mr. Weinstein. On display at his new store at Green Spring Station are a very feminine Tiffany bow necklace and earrings in silver with gold and highly sophisticated, strong silver jewelry pieces created by Michael Bondanza and David Yurman. Mr. Bondanza's silver snake chain necklace and suit pin are adorned with art deco-like inserts of deep amethyst, onyx and gold, while Mr. Yurman's cuff bracelets of twisted tube sterling are set at the ends with a touch of gold and semiprecious stones.
Baltimore jewelry designer Betty Cooke has been mixing silver with gold and gems for years. One handsome piece is a choker necklace that alternates tubes of silver with sections of cultured pearls or lapis, a design she created more than 15 years ago.
"I think of jewelry as sculpture," says Ms. Cooke, whose long silver tube necklaces often include tassels of silver and bits of materials like black onyx, turquoise, amber, pieces of wood, and even beach pebbles. Although the jewelry is understated and sophisticated, "a lot is happening," says the designer, who is known for using geometric shapes in free-form patterns. A curved bangle bracelet in polished silver is a Cooke classic.
"What I see in my shop are artist jewelers experimenting with mixing metals and finishes," says Carol Brody, co-owner of Craft Concepts in Green Spring Station. "They are working with texture, playing with rough vs. smooth or matte vs. polished, to create an effect." As they move away from plain pieces of polished silver, many artists are adorning their work with gold, jasper, lapis, onyx, other semiprecious stones, and beads of all types.
Lewis and Heubner, a design team from New York, uses a half dozen geometric silver and gold shapes, dangling them in infinite patterns from ear wires. Trace Pettingill overlaps silver and gold shapes. Baltimorean M. K. Dilli works silver into her intricate bead designs. And Pat Garrett creates very detailed designs that range from silver dragonflies to silver abstract shapes.
"Silver is very strong today," says Ginny Tomlinson of Tomlinson Craft Collection. "It has a great '70s look and is very well-designed." Ms. Tomlinson's stores showcase several Baltimore artists who design and make their own silver jewelry, including Lauren Schott, Laurie Flannery, Jill Beninato, Bruce Blackburn and Jim Fixx.
Marley Simon of Marley Gallery of Contemporary Jewelry in Pikesville says some of his customers use personal stylists who recommend silver rather than gold for particular clients. In silver, the custom look is geometric, large and tailored, he adds.
For people who like very traditional silver jewelry, Kirk Stieff makes a few pieces, such as a cuff bracelet and a bar pin, based on the Kirk's Repousse pattern. And, for a Southwestern look without tripping to Santa Fe, Jurus Ltd., in Mount Washington, has handcrafted silver buffalo pins.
"The hottest thing in collectible silver jewelry is anything from the 1930s, '40s and '50s from Georg Jensen of Copenhagen," says Bruce Levinson, vice president of Alex Cooper Auctioneers. "A piece of jewelry with 2 ounces of silver might bring $1,000 to $1,500."
Also prized by a select group of collectors are silver pieces from the Baltimore jewelry designer Carl Schon. Working primarily from 1915 to 1930, Schon was known for his sea horse pins and unusual renderings of animals, such as snakes and lizards, which he often incorporated into silver rings.
As gifts, sterling items are a treasure that grows more beautiful with age and use. Dahne and Weinstein's Tiffany selections include items like letter openers, key rings, bar knives, pocket pen knives and picture frames. Creative Specialties in Pikesville also has sterling picture frames, plus a collection of small sterling leaf and flower-inspired dishes by Buccellati, and Mont Blanc sterling silver fountain pens.
Silver baby gifts are popular with customers at the Albert S. Smyth Co., says Vice President Buzz Getschel. "It is not at all unusual for someone to spend $60 to $100 for something sterling." Best sellers include cups, rattles, teething rings and silver spoons.
But the biggest news is increasing interest in silver flatware. "I would say 95 percent of the brides that register here choose a sterling silver pattern and it is most often a Kirk Stieff design," he says. Best-selling patterns at Smyth include Old Maryland Engraved, based on a 1850 Kirk design, and Rose, a 1892 Stieff design.
For gift givers, the good news is that flatware prices are lower now than they were a few years ago. The bad news is that hollow ware prices have increased dramatically. "A four piece sterling tea set that would have been $600 twenty years ago now sells for ten times that much," says Getschel.
ANTIQUES AND COLLECTIBLES
Antique silver made in Maryland is "highly prized" and often "underpriced when compared with silver made by Gorham or Tiffany," says Jennifer Goldsborough, chief curator of the Maryland Historical Society, which houses one of the best silver collections in the United States. But forget stumbling on a nice little silver bowl from the 1700s.
"Maryland silver from the 18th century is rarely available," she says. "It is either in museums or in about a half a dozen private collections." Most silver on the current antique market is from the 1800s on. Much of it dates from the mid- to latter part of the 19th century after the great silver mines of the West opened and flooded the country with silver, to the great joy of the growing middle class.
"Owning a silver tea set in the late 1800s was the equivalent today of having a Mercedes parked in the driveway," says Ms. Goldsborough. "It showed you definitely had arrived."
A few pieces of very old Maryland silver do pop up here and there. At the Imperial Half Bushel on Howard Street, co-owner Nancy Duggan has a six-piece tea set containing an 1810 teapot, creamer and sugar made by Charles Boehme and a 1830 coffeepot, a second teapot and a waste bowl made by Samuel Kirk. The price is $11,000.
Because of the high price tags on holloware pieces, people who collect antique silver often settle for small objects like napkin rings, children's cups, snuffboxes, tea balls, thimbles and needle cases. Spoons, which were the most visible flatware piece in the 19th century, are collected. The earliest silver spoons were in the fiddle design, but Kirk's 1824 King pattern, with the shell motif, is a favorite with collectors, says Ms. Duggan. And, she says, "silver is one genuine antique that you can use."
While many people buy basic flatware to complete silver sets, many collectors are searching for particular pieces. "They are looking for the unusual, especially items like asparagus servers, bacon servers, tomato servers, tongs, oyster forks," says Earl Hogan of Ruth and Earl's Antiques on Howard Street.
Kirk's Repousse pattern, which originally was designed in 1828 and incorporated into a flatware pattern in the 1880s, and Stieff's Rose, designed in 1892 with the repousse technique, are the most collectible patterns in Maryland, says Michael Merrill of Michael A. Merrill Inc., a silver, jewelry and coin appraising company in Towson.
The repousse technique, the process of beating a recessed floral and pictorial design into the silver on the back side so that it will show up as a raised design on the front, originated in Europe, but was perfected by the Maryland silversmiths of the 19th century. The frequent and skilled use of the repousse technique is one of the things that makes Maryland silver so intriguing to antique buffs.
Antique Maryland silver is also unique because from 1814 to 1830, silver pieces had to pass through an assay office and were marked with the silversmith's name, the date and the purity of the silver. Since Maryland was the only state in the United States to have this type of silver regulation, Maryland silver from the assay period is actively sought by collectors.
Of course, not all antique silver collectors are looking for Maryland silver. Other companies, like Gorham, have their devotees. "And people faint for Tiffany silver," says Irene Briant, a former Roland Park antique dealer.
While some people look for antique silver only, others are interested in items that don't pass the official silver muster because they are less than 100 years old. Collectibles include vanity sets with silver backed brushes, combs, nail buffs and files, silver shaving sets, fountain pens, picture frames, salt spoons, decanter labels, butter picks and silver mesh purses. Very thin silver cigarette cases and women's compacts from the '20s and '30s are collectibles.
One silver item, collected by thousands of people, is the souvenir spoon, a little marketing tool manufactured to promote a city, state, world fair, or any place or event. "The older ones usually have elaborately engraved bowls," says Edith Ralston of the Silver Mine at the Belvedere Hotel, "and they are the ones people want."
Prices for souvenir spoons range from about $10 to $15, but "some go as high as $125," Ms. Ralston says. Two interesting spoons at the Silver Mine include a 1897 spoon promoting Jacksonville, Fla., and an art nouveau spoon highlighting San Antonio, Texas.
From tiny spoons to elaborate tea sets, silver has a quality that makes people want to own it, cherish it, touch it, display it, use it and, perhaps, hoard it. And if things get gloomy, everyone looks for one very special piece of silver -- the silver lining.