By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn — My interest in silver started when I was a child. One of my earliest memories was opening either my mother or father’s jewelry box and using a magnifying glass to look at all the little marks on the pieces inside. There were also a few pieces of metalwork in our family: a copper coffeepot and a small silver saucepan. My great, great, great grandfather in Sweden made the coffeepot, and my grandfather made the little silver saucepan. He passed away when I was 7. It intrigued me that people...

Shakers for Pepper; Pottery and Pewter

By Elinor Emery Pollard — Early American pepper pots, or casters, or muffineers (and they are all one) present an elusive quest. But their charm is great and their history interesting, for they played an important part in the daily lives of our early forebears. There is an old painting called Taste, by Gonzales Coques (1618-1684), in the National Gallery in London which shows, on a table in the background, a plain little cylindrical caster without any handle. Thus we know that as early as the beginning of the...

The Kalo Shop, a Mecca for Arts and Crafts Sterling Silver

By Maribeth Keane — How did I get started collecting Arts and Crafts silver? My wife and I had been collecting Arts and Crafts items as far back as I can remember, mostly furniture and tiles. One day many years ago I got bit by the silver bug. We lived in California and I’d visit antique dealers and one of them showed me a silver serving spoon by Chicago silver maker Falick Novick. It was beautifully made, the shape was great and it had little marks all over it, which I soon learned are called planishing or...