Dinner sets and other silver items of collectible value

Passing the gallery

A photo: Mikhail Stepanov, Maxim Roslovtsev

Text: Natalia Utochkina

Magazine: N6 (62) 2002

Candelabra and sets, writing instruments and weapons, lamps and indoor clocks are far from being completely free of silver. At all times, silver in the interior served as evidence of respectability: after all, silver is usually a hereditary thing. Being executed in several or in one copy, these things and gizmos carry the seal of uniqueness. In addition, silver is probably the only precious metal included in the interior as a decor. Nero, Louis XIV, Napoleon I ordered ceremonial dinner sets of pure silver. The table silver service of the Roman emperor Augustus consisted of many hundreds of items, among which were real silver colossi: for example, dishes with a diameter of more than one and a half meters and cups containing several liters of wine. Since those heroic times, the tendency to cyclopean forms in articles made of precious metals has given way to small forms, in favor of the grace of decoration. The hedonistic 18th century was the golden age of silver. Table silver sets, sometimes in three thousand items, were supplemented with real table fountains cast from silver. With the emergence of such beverages as tea, coffee, and chocolate in European life, new forms emerged: the relevance of a teapot, a coffee pot, and a jug for chocolate was experienced as a historical event in the high life of European capitals. Dinner sets were completed with silver dessert sets, fruit vases, champagne wines, candy dishes. English silver contrasted its individual style to continental products. The main decoration of elegant English silver was the engraved coat of arms or initials of the owners. In Russia, silver experienced its heyday much later than in European countries - and modern, creating masterpieces of decorative art, brought sophisticated plastic to the “mastery” of silver art as a distinctive feature of the entire Silver Age of Russian culture. Collectible interest are, of course, gift items from Faberge, Sazikov, who were listed as suppliers of the imperial court. Founded in 1810, Sazikov’s firm was known for its jewelery, but the death of the last member of the family ceased to exist in 1877, and later, at the end of the 19th century, Faberge’s European fame somewhat overshadowed Sazikov’s silver, without reducing its value and the cost. The brand of the company - the name or inscription, often by the name of the owner - stands next to the sample. Sometimes on unique works you can see the stamp of the master, who personally made the thing. Products made of antique silver, whether Sazikov, Ovchinnikov or Faberge, by virtue of their artistic and material indisputability remain in the interior symbols of firmness and the imperishability of beauty.