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 SMP Silver Salon Forums
 American Silver before sterling
 Identifying engravers work
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| Author | Topic: Identifying engravers work |
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argentum1 Posts: 602 |
posted 03-23-2008 12:31 PM
  
I realize this is a bit on the technical side but does anyone know of published works,commercial or academic, identifying the engraving styles/peculiarities of known engravers or of regional engraving styles. By regional I am referring to city , state or areas i.e. Middle Atlantic. As always thanks in advance for any assistance. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 03-23-2008 02:19 PM
There are style guide books for engravers. Most engravers adapt the given examples to their own needs. Beyond that, I don't know if there have been studies of the subject. IP: Logged |
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argentum1 Posts: 602 |
posted 03-23-2008 03:07 PM
I am referring to any studies done to enable one to identify a specific engraver. In other words - who did the engraving or put in another way. If I look at a piece of silver with a presentation engraving I would be able to say Oh, that was engraved by Bowditch or Revere because he cut those serifs like that. IP: Logged |
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swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 |
posted 03-24-2008 12:08 AM
If you compare several spoons with the same maker's mark, you may find some idiosyncracies in common which might indicate they were done by the same hand, or you might find several different hands represented, because there is no guarantee that the owner of the mark did the engraving himself. Engraving was often farmed out to specialized engravers or other silversmiths who were especially good at it, or it may have been given to different journeymen or apprentices in the maker's shop to do. I have a drawer full of unsigned spoons which I had hoped to match that way, but I have been able to do it only a couple of times. As Dale has indicated, style books were used as guides from which lettering was copied - they were English, and used from late colonial times at least into the 1840's or so, so no regional styles generally would be expected to have developed in American silver in that time period. IP: Logged |
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Polly Posts: 1970 |
posted 03-24-2008 01:01 AM
Was engraving a separate profession from creating the items to be engraved? Would the retailer have done simple engraving such as monograms, but left more complicated designs to a professional? IP: Logged |
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agleopar Posts: 850 |
posted 03-24-2008 07:25 AM
This is the embryo of an idea that might only take 10 – 20 years! Honestly, I have fantasized about this book and the companion one that studies chasing in the same way. I have not found the 3 or 4 folks that I have had a short conversation about doing this ever expressed much enthusiasm for the idea. OK they were totally unexcited... But why not, except that a huge amount of silver would have to be looked at and compared with very good magnification, it is straight forward that if you compared styles of cutting and tools used you could know which engraver worked for which silversmiths? With chasers it would be simpler because you would only need to match up the tools that shared the same texture. Commonly called matting tools they were used for background and one strike of the hammer on the tool left a distinct impression that is the same every time. Engraving and chasing are so specialized that in big work shops it is left up to full time pros but in a small workshop or in colonial times you would find one down the street if you could not knock it out yourself. For this reason if you picked a time and place where there were enough shops but not to much silver, (Boston in 1750?) or a small group of workshops in a small area (Poughkeepsie, NY 1840?) and looked at all the silver it might be possible to cross reference the engravers/chasers. Today with digital images it could be done if all who had a piece from that time and place took good close ups.... IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-24-2008 08:03 AM
This is a bookplate. I haven't research this but have been told that many silver engravers were also bookplate engravers/makers. I believe I have seen (once or twice & not inexpensive) "style" references for bookplates and their makers. If I am recalling properly then might this provide some insight to who's hand was doing the engraving? IP: Logged |
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bascall Posts: 1629 |
posted 03-24-2008 10:56 AM
Here's a thread that might be worth a look: Catalogue of an Exhibition of Early American Engraving Upon Copper: 1727 ... By Grolier Club IP: Logged |
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Polly Posts: 1970 |
posted 03-24-2008 11:00 AM
Sounds like a dissertation. Encourage your grad students, everyone. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 03-24-2008 11:29 AM
Engraving style books are still out there. People I have meet who do engraving use them today. One I saw was first published in the 1880's and still available. IP: Logged |
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swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 |
posted 03-24-2008 01:28 PM
Dover has republished under the title of "Ornamental Penmanship: Two Eighteenth Century Classics of Calligraphy" two such books as one 76 page 12 X 8 1/2" softcover: "The Penman's Repository" by William Milns (1795) and "The Beauties of Writing" by Thomas Tomkins (1777). Milns' compendium illustrates more alphabets than you might have known existed, while Tompkins' illustrates elaborations of the better known English forms. I have found this volume most helpful. Another useful Dover title is "Monograms and Alphabetic Devices" edited by Hayward and Blanche Cirker, 227 pp, 11 X 8 ", softcover. It contains reprints of four 19th Century volumes (3 English and one French, and is immensely helpful in interpreting those intertwined ciphers and fancy monograms that one finds engraved on silver. [This message has been edited by swarter (edited 03-24-2008).] IP: Logged |
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Richard Kurtzman Moderator Posts: 768 |
posted 03-24-2008 05:49 PM
A number of years ago I had a wood framed silver plaque (about 11" x 9") with approximately 40 different engraved lettering styles. Unfortunately, and stupidly, I let it go. It's the only one that I have ever seen and I have never forgotten it. IP: Logged |
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Brent Posts: 1507 |
posted 03-24-2008 07:49 PM
An interesting question that I have considered worth pursuing as well. I DO think that it would be possible to identify particular regional "schools" of engraving. Philadelphia engravers definitely had a distictive way of feathering letters, and the large cyphers with double-line letters are also a "typical" style. Certainly many styles were derived from common pattern books, but I do think some regional styles developed. I think it would make a fine dissertation topic! As an aside, I recall attending a lecture about Paul Revere some years ago. I can't recall the speaker's name or where his findings were published, but he was able to identify at least three distinctive engravers who worked on items in Revere's shop. Using the engraving styles as a key, he was able to identify some unmarked pieces, as well as pieces marked by other Boston smiths, as having come from Revere's shop. Brent IP: Logged |
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