British Silver: Short Bibliography

With an excellent collection, of books, periodicals and images, on English silver, the library is one of the best places to study the history and development of this unique form of decorative art.

The standard works by early 19th century authors, such as E. Alfred Jones and Sir Charles Jackson, were supplemented by the post war wave of writers such as Charles Oman, Gerald Taylor, and Arthur Grimwade.  A third generation, led by Philippa Glanville, which includes John Culme, Timothy Schroder, Christopher Hartop, Ellenor Alcorn and Helen Clifford, are adding still further to our depth of knowledge on the manufacture, function and significance of silver within our social and material culture.

Numerous articles from art periodicals, and specialist publications from organisations like the Silver Society, the Caddy Spoon Collectors’ Club, the Wine Label Circle and the Silver Spoon Collectors of Great Britain, amongst others, also provide up-to-date research.

Negatives, 35mm slides, transparencies and digital images of British silver taken from the 1930s onwards are another specialist feature of the library’s stock.

General

BLAIR, Claude ed. The history of silver (London, Macdonald Orbis, 1987)

CLAYTON, Michael. The collector's dictionary of the silver and gold of Great Britain and North America (Woodbridge, Antique Collectors' Club, 1971)

GLANVILLE, Philippa ed. Silver (London, V&A, 1996)

GLANVILLE, Philippa. Silver in England (London, Unwin Hyman, 1987)

HERNMARCK, Carl. The art of the European silversmith 1430-1830 (London, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1977)

INGLIS, Brand. The Arthur Negus guide to British silver (London, Hamlyn, 1980)

JACKSON, Charles James.  An illustrated history of English plate, ecclesiastical and secular, in which the development of form and decoration in the silver and gold work of the British Isles from the earliest known examples to the latest of the Georgian period is delineated and described (London, Country Life Limited and B. T. Batsford, 2v., 1911)

OMAN, Charles Chichele.  English domestic silver (London, Adam & Charles Black, 1959)

OMAN, Charles Chichele. English silversmiths' work civil and domestic: an introduction (London, HMSO, 1965)

SCHRODER, Timothy B.  The National Trust book of English domestic silver (London, Viking in assoc. with the National Trust , 1988)

TAYLOR, Gerald.  Silver (London, Pelican Books, 1963)

TAYLOR, Gerald.  Art in silver and gold (London, Studio Vista Limited, 1964)

TRUMAN, Charles ed.  Sotheby's concise encyclopaedia of silver (London, Conran Octopus, 1993)

For collectors

HELLIWELL, Stephen J. Collecting small silverware (Oxford, Phaidon/Christie's Ltd, 1988)

LUDDINGTON, John. Starting to collect silver (Woodbridge, Antique Collectors' Club, 1984)

PICKFORD, Ian. Antique silver (Woodbridge, Antique Collectors' Club,1998)

By period

CULME, John David.  Nineteenth century silver (London, Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd, 1977)

GRIMWADE, Arthur Girling. Rococo silver 1727-1765 (London, Faber & Faber, 1974)

HAYWARD, John Forrest.  Huguenot silver in England 1688-1727 (London, Faber & Faber, 1959)

OMAN, Charles Chichele.  Caroline silver 1625-1688 (London, Faber & Faber, 1970)

ROWE, Robert. Adam silver 1765-1795 (London, Faber & Faber, 1975)

Church plate

GRIMWADE, Arthur Girling for CHRISTIE’S LONDON.  Catalogue of silver treasures from English churches: an exhibition of ecclesiastical plate of domestic origin (London, Christie’s, 1955)

OMAN, Charles Chichele. English church plate 597-1830 (London, Oxford University Press, 1957)

SCHRODER, Timothy B., ed.  Treasures of the English church: a thousand years of sacred gold & silver (London, The Goldsmiths' Company in association with Paul Holberton Publishing, 2008)

Collections

ALCORN, Ellenor, M.  English silver in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Volume I (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1993)

ALCORN, Ellenor, M.  English silver in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Volume II: silver from 1697 including Irish and Scottish silver (Boston, MFA Publications, 2000)

ALCORN, Ellenor, M.  Beyond the maker's mark. Paul de Lamerie silver in the Cahn collection (Cambridge, John Adamson, 2006)

CULME, John David, ed. English silver treasures from the Kremlin: a loan exhibition (London, Sotheby’s, 1991)

GRIMWADE, Arthur Girling. The Queen's silver. A survey of Her Majesty's personal collection (London, The Connoisseur, 1953)

HARTOP, Christopher. The Huguenot legacy: English silver 1680-1760 from the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection (London, Thomas Heneage & Co. Ltd, 1996)

HARTOP, Christopher. British and Irish silver in the Fogg Art Museum Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Art Museums, 2007)

JONES, E. Alfred. The royal plate of the Tower of London, including the old silver communion vessels of the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula within the Tower (Oxford, Fox, Jones & Co., 1908)

JONES, E. Alfred. Catalogue of the collection of old plate of William Francis Farrer at No. 7 St. James's Square, London (London, The St. Catherine Press, 1924)

JONES, E. Alfred. Catalogue of the objects in gold and silver and the Limoges enamels in the collection of the Baroness James D. Rothschild (Letchworth, Arden Press, 1912)

JONES, E. Alfred. Catalogue of the plate belonging to the Duke of Portland, K.G., G.C.V.O. at Welbeck Abbey (London, The Saint Catherine Press, 1935)

JONES, E. Alfred. The gold and silver of Windsor Castle (Letchworth, Arden Press, 1911)

JONES, E. Alfred. Old English gold plate (London, Bemrose & Sons Limited, 1907)

JONES, E. Alfred. Old silver of Europe and America; from early times to the nineteenth century (London, B. T. Batsford Limited, 1928)

JONES, E. Alfred. The old English plate of the Emperor of Russia Letchworth (Letchworth, priv. print by W.H. Smith & Son, Arden Press, 1909)

SCHRODER, Timothy B. British and continental gold and silver in the Ashmolean Museum. (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, 3v., 2009)

SCHRODER, Timothy B. The Gilbert Collection of gold and silver (Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,  1988)

SCHRODER, Timothy B., comp.  The Francis E. Fowler, Jr., collection of silver (Los Angeles, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1991)

Collections:  Oxford & Cambridge colleges

CLIFFORD, Dr. Helen M. A treasured inheritance. 600 years of Oxford College silver (Oxford Ashmolean Museum, 2004)

JONES, E. Alfred.  (Catalogues of numerous Oxford - Jesus College, Christ Church, Magdalen College, Merton College, Oriel College, and Queen's College)

JONES, E. Alfred. The old plate of the Cambridge colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1910)

Engraved silver

OMAN, Charles Chichele. English engraved silver 1150-1900 (London, Faber & Faber, 1978)

Gender

GLANVILLE, Philippa & GOLDSBOROUGH, Jennifer Faulds. Women silversmiths 1685-1845 (Washington D.C., Thames & Hudson & The National Museum of Women in Arts, 1990)

Social history

GLANVILLE, Philippa & LEE, Sophie. The art of drinking (London, V&A, 2007)

GLANVILLE, Philippa & YOUNG, Hilary. Elegant eating. Four hundred years of dining in style (London, V&A ,2002)