SHEFFIELD PLATE
Every one is familiar with the name “Sheffield Plate,” and many have a
vague idea as to what, superficially, marks its distinction; there are
fewer, however, who know its story. It is interesting. A few years prior
to the middle of the eighteenth century--1742 is the generally accepted
date--there lived in a little house on Sycamore Hill in the English town
of Sheffield an ingenious mechanic, Thomas Bolsover by name. His knife,
which had a handle made partly of silver and partly of copper, had been
broken, and one day in a leisure moment Bolsover took it to his attic
room to repair it at the little work-bench he had fixed up there. In the
course of this operation an unusual accident brought about the fusing of
the copper and silver parts of the knife-handle. To Bolsover’s surprise
he found the metals had cohered, forming a copper basis with a surface
of silver.
To a stupid mechanic this would have given rise to no reflection, or
only to futile and passing curiosity. To Bolsover it at once brought
the reflection that a process developed by experiment from the results
of this accident would be of definite utility. In view of the fact that
the value of silver at that time was three times what it is to-day, the
discovery of a substitute for the solid precious metal was of great
commercial importance.
Bolsover was a cutler by trade and steel-working was Sheffield’s chief
industry. So little silver-working had been attempted in the town that
there was not even an assay office there; in fact, one was not
established until some thirty years subsequent to Bolsover’s discovery
and inventions. Although Bolsover was only a struggling workman, he had
the good fortune of interesting a Mr. Pegge of Beauchief, who furnished
him with the capital to set up a manufactory of articles produced by the
new process. Buttons, buckles, snuff-boxes, and knife-handles were
turned out from the new shops on Baker’s Hill. This business Bolsover
conducted in conjunction with one, Joseph Wilson. During this period
Bolsover was probably so concerned with his work and the manufacture of
the small articles mentioned that it never occurred to him that his
process was capable of greater developments. Changing conditions open
new channels that are to be anticipated only by imaginative minds.
Bolsover’s mind was, I think, less imaginative than of a generally
intelligent and practical turn. It was sufficient for him, in all
probability, that he had stumbled on material which would replace silver
in the manufacture of the small articles that appealed to his commercial
instinct.
The middle of the eighteenth century was a period in which only the very
well-to-do could afford articles of silver for household use. The middle
class still contented itself with pewter. It apparently remained for
Joseph Hancock, a brazier who had been in Bolsover’s employ, to realize
the possibilities of Bolsover’s copper rolled-plate process (as it was
then and for a long time afterward called), as a suitable material for
silverware. Hancock produced tea-pots, coffee-pots, candlesticks,
tankards, waiters, and so on.
It may seem strange that neither Bolsover nor Hancock followed the new
industry for long. As astute business men, they might be expected to
have anticipated the vogue that the copper rolled plate was later to
enjoy. On the other hand, I think one should take into consideration the
fact that the well-to-do of the day sought no silver substitutes, and
that on the tables of the middle class such things as epergnes,
bread-baskets, and cake-baskets were hardly to be found before 1750,
while coffee-pots and milk-jugs were rare even in silver, and
tea-kettles and tea-urns even more so. As these various articles came
into more extended use in silver form, they suggested to the immediate
followers of Bolsover and Hancock the greater commercial field that
would open to their manufacture in copper rolled plate. Still the old
Tudor & Leader firm, founded by Dr. Sherburn in 1758 and existing till
1814, a firm advertising “the best wrought silver plate,” devoted most
of its attention to the making of buttons and snuff-boxes.
Authorities generally assign to about 1760 the earliest table pieces,
except those (and they were very few) which Hancock produced. After this
time the copper rolled plate, the manufacture of which Bolsover and
Hancock found less remunerative than the metal rolling business they
entered, developed rapidly. By 1774 there were some sixteen firms
engaged in the hollow-ware making in Sheffield alone, and Boulton had
established a factory for copper rolled plate in Birmingham. We may
assume that Sheffield plate, as the ware came to be called then, became
widely popular, for Ashworth, Ellis, Wilson, and Hawksly opened branches
away from Sheffield--in Paris and in Dublin. There were, of course,
many improvements in Sheffield plate, such as the method of preparing
for and applying the ornamental silver edges which was under the patents
of Mr. Roberts of Roberts & Cadman in 1824.
To another discovery we may credit the decline of the fine copper rolled
plate after 1840. It seems that a medical student, Wright by name,
studying with Dr. Shearman of Rotherham, near Sheffield, discovered a
process of depositing silver on copper by electro-decomposition. He sold
his discovery to Messrs. Elkington in Birmingham, who took out patents,
March 25, 1840. Those who have not studied the matter usually rest under
the impression that Sheffield plate, as collectors know it, is an
electroplated ware. On the contrary, although many of the beautiful
original Sheffield-plate forms have been imitated in electroplated
articles, it is not the latter that hold a collector’s interest.
Moreover, the true Sheffield plate so treasured to-day has the silver
rolled on copper and not on nickel or white metal. I suppose tons of
machine-made copper articles, electroplated, pass to-day with the
unknowing as true Sheffield plate. Such of these as imitate the fine old
forms that have been unsurpassed are certainly preferable to other
modern wares that lack the beauty of form and the traditions of design.
However, the electroplated wares should be declared such, and should not
be fabricated to deceive.
Another point is that the cost of making copper rolled plate is twice
the cost of making electroplate. It is, I think, better for the home
furnisher to pay twice as much for a few excellent things than to have
twice as many inferior ones at the same price. Modern Sheffield
plate--that is to say, the rolled plate of to-day--is nearly all worth
having. The old Sheffield pattern-books and many of the dies for the
forms survived the capricious fortune that for so many years led the
older art to give way to the commercial aspect of electroplate. Now,
electroplating does not wear well unless it is done on nickel; a hard
copper basis, moreover, enhances the beauty of the silver coating, and
brings out a quality which nickel and white metal do not.
As it was not until 1784 that Parliament repealed the act that
prohibited marking plated ware, no Sheffield plate that is genuine is
found with a mark antedating 1784. From 1784, to, say, 1880, Sheffield
plate may bear mark and maker’s name beside it. The firm of W. Green &
Co. was the first to have its mark and name registered for Sheffield
plate; this was September 8, 1784. However, the collector finds pieces
bearing names and marks together very rare. Marks are generally so
inconspicuously placed as often to be missed even when they do occur.
Careful examination is necessary to discover them.
It should be borne in mind that the genuine Sheffield-plate metal
consisted of silver and copper sheets inseparably joined and pressed out
to the required thinness by being run cold through rollers. The metal
was then cut and shaped by hand-hammering into the forms desired.
Electroplated ware consists of a baser metal form already shaped before
being coated with silver in galvanic solution. The possessor of any
pieces of genuine Sheffield plate will subject them to ruin if he is, at
any time, so ill-advised as to have them replated. Such a renovation
will utterly destroy the beauty that intrinsically resides with even
worn pieces of Sheffield plate that show copper traces.
[Illustration: Sheffield Plate Tray and Spoonholder]
[Illustration:
_Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art_
Sheffield Plate Teapots and Coffee Pot]
[Illustration: Straw Marqueterie Box, French, 18th Century]
[Illustration:
_Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art_
Straw Marqueterie Box, English, 17th Century]