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Sheffield plating in the USA

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Author	Topic: Sheffield plating in the USA
Marc Posts: 414 Registered: Jun 2002	posted 02-06-2007 03:33 PM Hi there all, A simple question... Was real "sheffield plating" ever done in the USA, or was it all imported. This question comes about a large 13" tall sheffield plated flagon I saw with an "IG" makers mark in a rectangular cartouche on the bottom. The style & wire work thumb piece tells me it is c. 1800, but my reference books list no platers from that time period in Great Britian, and only 2 silversmiths. Could this piece have been made in the USA ? IP: Logged
wev Moderator Posts: 4121 Registered: Apr 99	posted 02-06-2007 04:09 PM I suppose there must have been, but none of the 63 silverplaters I have in my tree worked before 1820 or so. The earliest directory listing I have is Boston 1800: George Sutherland, silverplater on Hanover Street. IP: Logged
wev Moderator Posts: 4121 Registered: Apr 99	posted 02-06-2007 04:11 PM If you can find a library with a copy, see: American Sheffield Plate E. Alfred Jones The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 30, No. 170 (May, 1917), pp. 179-181+183 IP: Logged
swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 Registered: May 2003	posted 02-06-2007 05:39 PM Certainly Sheffield Plate was imported (I have seen ads from the period); unsigned pieces (most of the later ones) could have been marked by the American resellers. IP: Logged
wev Moderator Posts: 4121 Registered: Apr 99	posted 02-06-2007 06:03 PM There was also William Healey silverplater at 62 Dock Street in the 1791 Philadelphia Directory IP: Logged
swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 Registered: May 2003	posted 02-06-2007 07:04 PM One of the classes of objects for which there was the most demand from the domestic platers was horse tack and similar ornamentation, such as buckles (for both horse and man). Close-plating was probably involved, too. [This message has been edited by swarter (edited 02-06-2007).] IP: Logged
wev Moderator Posts: 4121 Registered: Apr 99	posted 02-06-2007 07:51 PM I have also seen directory and census notations of "carriage plater" which I assumed was related to the buckle and harress trade. IP: Logged
swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 Registered: May 2003	posted 02-06-2007 09:22 PM That always evoked for me images of what we used to do to our automobiles in the 50's and 60's. Status symbolism then and now. IP: Logged
Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 Registered: May 99	posted 05-19-2007 03:27 PM I happened onto this thread while browsing--can anyone point to an actual piece of 18th-century American-made silverplate (meaning fused plate in the Sheffield technique)? Can anyone, for that matter, point to an American-made piece of fused plate (not electroplate) of any pre-1840 period? I had never thought of it, but those references are tantalizing. Of course, I'm sure it's not marked--why would it be?--and thus we'll never know. I have a pair of federal simple Sheffield plate candlesticks that have been in my family forever--could they be American? Who will ever know? IP: Logged

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