Pushkin’s Blog
Important Silversmiths - The Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co
In 1880 William Gibson and John Lawrence Langman acquired premises at 112, Regent Street, London and founded The Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company. The firm produced a wide range of items from solid silver tableware and cutlery, jewellery and watches to electroplaters, trophies and surgical instruments. In 1898 the expanded and well-known firm became a limited company and added "Ltd" to its name.
An Introduction to The Russian Kovsh
The Russian silver kovsh with vivid polychrome enamels is a widely known image of Russian tradition and nowadays a very sought after object by collectors worldwide. Nevertheless few know that Russian kovsh has its origin in the 10th century.
Important Silversmiths - A Risler & Carré
In 1897 André Risler and his partner Georges Carré opened their shop at the fashionable Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. The company offered the finest silverware and exclusive jewelry. Almost instantly the brand gained a strong reputation amongst the Parisienne elite.
Important Silversmiths - Asprey & Co
The world-famous English luxury manufacturer and retailer Asprey & Co started as a small silk printing business by William Asprey in Mitcham, Surrey. Soon the company largely expanded its offering by purchasing some other firms.
Silver: Properties & Uses
Thanks to its many applications, in art, in our everyday life and ultimately in technology, the demand for silver will maintain its role as a precious metal and increase its value over time.
Important Makers - Goyard
Although the brand with its current name was founded in 1853, the firm was active since 1792 under the name of Maison Martin, from the name of the original establisher Pierre-François Martin. As one of the first ads specified.
Important Makers - Louis Vuitton
Born in Anchay, eastern France, in a family of farmers, the young Louis decided, when he was only thirteen, to travel to Paris on foot. In 1836 he found a job in the French capital as an apprentice to a layetier, a craftsman employed by wealthy people to pack their objects and clothes for travelling.
Important Silversmiths - Sibray Hall & Co
The company, specialised in fine Victorian silver tableware and centrepieces, was founded in 1878 in Sheffield by Frederick Sibray and Job Frank Hall.
Important Silversmiths - Cooke & Kelvey
The company was founded in Calcutta by Thomas Cooke and Charles Kelvey and retailed silver, diamonds, pearls and clocks. Cooke and Kelvey were in fact known as jewellers, gold and silversmiths and watchmakers.
Important Silversmiths - Jacob Tostrup
Jacob Ulrich Holfeldt Tostrup (1806 – 1890) is one of the best known Norwegian jewelers, silversmiths and goldsmiths. Tostrup was born in Norway to Nicolai Tostrup, an infantry captain, and his wife. He was the fourth of eight children. Between 1823 and 1828 he lived in Bergen, where he was apprenticed as a goldsmith
Important Silversmiths - Georg Roth
Not much is known about Georg Roth and the history behind his name. He first worked for the Hanauer Silberwaren Manufaktur (1891-1906) and only used his own mark, a crowned GR for Georg Roth from 1906. Based in Hanau, Germany, not far from Frankfurt, Roth specialised in fine copies from the antique, in the most popular historical styles and in particular French Rococo.
Important Silversmiths - David Andersen
Widely considered one of the best Norwegian goldsmiths and silversmiths, David Andersen was apprenticed to the jeweller Jacob Tostrup in Christiania (now Oslo). During his apprenticeship he traveled to Berlin, Paris and London, where he exported the unique technique of the Norwegian filigree. In 1876 he was back in Christiania, where he founded his own company introducing his own mark, ‘David Andersen’.
Important Silversmiths - Hermann Bohm
Hermann Böhm (also spelled Boehm) was a famous silversmith and enameler working in Vienna between the end of the 19th century until 1922. Originally from Hungary, he moved to Austria in 1866 and started working as a silversmith with his father-in-law Ludwig Politzer.
Important Silversmiths - Ludwig Politzer
Ludwig Politzer was one of the most important silversmiths and jewellers working in Vienna in the second half of the 19th century. Although we don’t know much about his life, we know he was born in 1841 in Szeged (Hungary); from 1866 he was in partnership with Hermann Böhm until about 1870.
Important Silversmiths - Hermann Ratzersdorfer
Born in Bratislava in 1819, Hermann Ratzersdorfer moved to Vienna at the beginning of the 1840s, where he started working as a silversmith. He specialised in silver and gold objects of vertu, tableware and jewellery, often enamelled and decorated in the style known as Historicism. He was also acclaimed for his rock crystal objects.
Important Silversmiths - Eugenio & Luigi Avolio
Eugenio Avolio (1876-1929) was a famous sculptor, silversmith and engraver. He lived and worked in Naples between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. He was apprenticed to the popular artist and sculptor Vincenzo Gemito. Professor at the Arts Academy in Naples, he received several international awards.
Important Silversmith - Karl Bender a.k.a Karl Bank
The mark “KB” appears on some of the finest objets d’art produced in Vienna in the last quarter of the 19th century.
Objects of the highest quality - such as tazzas, cups, nefs, clocks, cornucopias - were made in Vienna, emulating the style of Italian Renaissance and Baroque, using beautifully carved rock crystal or hand-painted enamel, and mounted in elaborate silver-gilt mounts and set with precious stones.
Important Silversmiths - Buccellati
Mario Buccellati was born in Milan in 1891. His father died when he was only fourteen and he started working to support his family. He was apprenticed to the jewellery firm Beltrami & Beltrami, based in Milan.
Important Silversmiths – Jean-Charles Cahier
Well known as silversmith to the kings Louis XVIII and Charles X, Jean-Charles Cahier was apprenticed to Martin-Guillaume Biennais, silversmith appointed by Napoleon. In 1801 he became master silversmith and in 1821, after Biennais retirement, he took over his company.
Important Silversmiths - William Cripps
William Cripps was a prominent and prolific manufacturing and retail silversmith based in London.
After being apprenticed to the popular goldsmith and banker William Daume, he was set free in 1738 and five years later he submitted his first mark as a largeworker in Compton Street, Soho.