68 
House Garden 
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dealer -Will be glad to giQe you informa¬ 
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40 Light “F” Plant $325 complete, 
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The “F” Light Plant may) also be obtained 
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Period Styles in Table Silver 
('Continued from page 66) 
and bulbous cream pitchers, and in the 
shaped stocks of the candlesticks then 
being fashioned. There were obvious 
correspondences between silver contours 
and decorative details and the shapes and 
motifs current in the furniture and the 
architecture of the same date, also an 
equally obvious correspondence with 
comparable features in much of the 
pottery and porcelain. 
The William and Mary, Queen Anne, 
Early Georgian era was the heyday of 
flowing, swelling curves and of series of 
shorter interrupted curves—oftentimes 
a combination of C and S scrolls—to give 
pleasing diversity of line. All these traits 
of contour are so dominant in the silver— 
we can plainly see the same influence 
in the design of the sugar tongs as well as 
in the hollow ware—that its close kin¬ 
ship with cabriolp legs and fiddle-backs, 
with interrupted pediments and bolection 
moldings cannot be called in question. 
The Neo-Classic Influence 
Between 1760 and 1770 a fresh wave 
of style influence set in strongly and 
wholly revolutionized silver design. This 
new movement synchronized and cor¬ 
responded with the Neo-Classic influence 
in architecture and furniture. Its chief 
characteristics, so far as contour was 
concerned, were (1) a noticeable return to 
rectilinear principles and (2) attenuation 
of design, though not necessarily a 
reduction of mass. 
In the height of the preceding era there 
had been almost complete elimination of 
straight structural lines. Now the scheme 
was reversed. The emphasis of the 
straight line appeared everywhere, and 
where straight structural lines would 
have been impracticable from a physical 
point of view—in such articles, for ex¬ 
ample, as cream pitchers or sugar bowls— 
the spontaneous rotundity, freedom and 
swing of the earlier curves were suppressed 
and, instead, we have, for the most part, 
parabolic curves of the utmost restraint. 
The aspect of attenuation was compassed 
by the adoption of tall, slender shapes 
rather than by providing for an equal 
capacity of content by employing dumpy, 
bulbous contours, as in the preceding 
period. Verticality was further em¬ 
phasized by breaking up the whole cir¬ 
cumference of such vessels as teapots, 
urns, sugar bowls, slop bowls and the 
like, into a succession of small, shallow, 
concave parabolic curves, extending from 
top to bottom of the upright surface. 
Spoon handles tapered to an approx¬ 
imately oval termination and the ends of 
the handles were turned down instead of 
up as formerly. From about 1780 onward 
the handles became perceptibly lighter 
and the ends were more pointed than at 
an earlier date. The bowls of the spoons 
tended to become more and more taper¬ 
ing toward the small end. 
In hollow ware, an oval shape, with 
vertical or slightly inward tapering sides 
and flat bottom, was much in favor for 
teapots, tea canisters, caddies, and sugar 
boxes. The oval shaping was also given 
to sugar bowls and cream pitchers of 
an urn contour, rising and flaring out with 
parabolic curves from square or oval 
bases. Again, perfectly round urns and 
sugar bowls were given a tall urn shape 
and rose from a square or round base or 
foot. The inspiration, of course, came 
from the urn of Neo-Classic provenance, 
one of the most useful decorative “prop¬ 
erties” of the whole period. In either 
case, round or oval, the surface might 
continue in one unbroken curve or else 
be broken up by a series of shallow, con¬ 
cave, parabolic curves as previously 
noted. 
Salts, though of divers shapes, were 
generally oval in form with straight sides 
or else of boat shape, with or without ears 
or handles, the contour very closely 
corresponding to the low and flat or 
spreading type of classic urn. Candle¬ 
sticks no longer showed the turned- 
baluster contours of an earlier date but 
had straight, unbroken vertical stocks 
and were often wrought in the form of 
classic columns, with properly detailed 
base and capital—wherein was the socket 
—the sides being either plain or fluted. 
Furniture Motifs in Silver 
All the engraved decoration of this 
period displayed the stock motifs com¬ 
monly to be seen in architectural and 
furniture schemes of ornamentation. 
There were the usual swags and drops of 
pendent husks or bell flowers, urn-shaped 
shields, round and oval paterae, garlands, 
ribbons, rosettes, fluting, arabesques 
and all the other devices in fashion as a 
result of the renewed interest in the 
elegancies of classicism. In addition to 
the methods of engraving formerly 
employed, great use was made of “bright- 
cut” decoration, a series of shallow gouges 
which gave a brilliant reflection and was 
highly effective in the composition of 
bands and other lines of emphasis. It 
occurred not only on the sides of hollow 
ware in connection with other motifs 
but also on the handles of spoons and 
forks. 
The Empire Influence 
About 1800, or shortly afterward, a 
new influence appeared in silver design 
and profoundly affected contour. This 
influence reflected the spirit that 
formed the Empire creations and echoed 
the fulsome forms that came into fashion 
as a direct result of Napoleonic fiat. 
There was also a marked falling away 
from the earlier Neo-Classic delicacy. 
The pure Neo-Classic inspiration per¬ 
sisted, it is true, in the “coffin-headed” 
forks and spoons, which continued to be 
made till about 1812 or 1815, but the 
grosser element was shown in the “fid¬ 
dle-headed” pattern that was popular 
from about 1810 onward. This latter 
type of fork and spoon had prominent 
angular shoulders on each side of the 
stem just above the tines or bowl, as the 
case might be, and a broad, flat, fiddle¬ 
shaped termination which was sometimes 
turned up, sometimes down. Fork and 
spoon handles were of identically the 
same pattern. 
The new influence was even more 
plainly visible in the lines of the hollow 
ware. Tumid, bulging contours sup¬ 
planted the slender grace of form that 
had previously dominated popular taste. 
Teapots, sugar bowls, cream pitchers and 
similar pieces were generally either round 
or oblong in shape and often stood upon 
ball feet. The sides were either broken 
into several bold and outward swelling 
curves or else preserved one robust 
parabolic curve from the base upward 
until the line of recession to the opening 
at the top. While the curvilinear element 
was again distinctly in evidence, it was 
not of the bulbous, globular sort pre¬ 
viously noted and belonging to the first 
half of the 18th Century. 
After the early part of the 19th Century, 
silver design suffered the same debase¬ 
ment that was evidenced in every other 
branch of decorative art, and the gro¬ 
tesque, over-decorated, and nondescript 
repousse productions appeared, a species 
of table ware that any discriminating 
silver lover can only regard as so much 
metal to be melted and fashioned over 
into more graceful forms. 
Choosing Silver for the Table 
All the foregoing observations regard¬ 
ing the characteristics of styles in table 
silver may possess a certain antiquarian 
interest, but they can have no practical 
value for us unless we deduce some prin¬ 
ciple to guide us in our choice and use. 
To any ordinarily observant person it is 
perfectly plain that certain things “go 
together” and certain others just as 
(Continued on page 70) 
