posted 08-30-2000 09:39 PM            

A generally festive atmosphere pervailed. We met up with a lot of our long time silver friends. Here is a photo of June with Marc Cutcher of Solomon Enterprises and one of both of us at Marc's booth. The third photo is a sample of silver at Steve Lubar's booth.

posted 08-31-2000 09:06 AM            

As Scott mentioned, prices tend to be high. On the other hand, if you are looking for one thing in particular, you are likely to find it here, particularly in the Victorian area. Many prominent 19th century silver dealers display here; the rest come to buy!

Coin silver is a little weak, but the dealers who do specialize in it have top-quality goods. I saw a museum-quality Anthony Rasch double standing salt in one booth, cases of Southern coin, and some fine bird-back spoons. In the upper stratosphere of prices were some significant pieces of early American holloware.

One of the benefits, or drawbacks, of a show like this is that you may see multiple examples of very rare items. Case in point: Cheryl and Richard, who contribute to these forums, noted a beautiful Gorham spoon in one booth decorated with geometric designs in red enamel; they told me not to miss it! I later found a sugar sifter in the same pattern, and one dealer even had a cased set of pieces with the same pattern! This is par for the course in Baltimore; if you have never seen anything like it, chances are there are 3 or 4 for sale on the floor.

posted 08-31-2000 04:05 PM            

We found a Shiebler piece in the Flora pattern, probably a paper slice. It is noteworthy because it has a minor variation: a 5 band collar between the handle and the balde. Shiebler used this with other patterns, but this is new, to us, in Flora.