Introduction
While the price of silver steadily falls, the price of old silver steadily rises. Every year the records are broken at the salesrooms. People were astonished when about £70 per ounce was paid for a James I. mazer six years ago, but the sum of £100 paid by Messrs, Crichton or the Tudor cup of which a rough sketch appears in image 1 beats completely the previous record. The cup is only 4½ inch high and 4¾ inch in diameter and weighs 14oz. 3dwts. The price thus works out at about £290 per ounce. The spoon, surmounted by a figure of St. Nicholas restoring the children to life, dates back to the reign of Henry VII. The exact year is uncertain, but to say that it was manufactured in the last decade of the sixteenth century will not be far wrong. The spoon was sold for £690.
Exceedingly high prices are nearly always realised for silver of the sixteenth century. This is largely due to the civil disorders occasioned by the suppression of the monasteries when much plate was ruthlessly converted into bullion. Later, the Civil Wars had a similar disastrous result.
It gives me pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness for the illustrations of these remarkable pieces to the Editor of the Watchmaker.
Silversmith.