Silver Spoon Antiques

A 1676 map of the Somers Isles (Bermuda) by John Speed, based on the map of surveyor Richard Norwood Bermuda is a fairly isolated set of islands in the Atlantic Ocean around 650 miles east of the coast of North Carolina. There are seven main islands and several more smaller islands. The main islands are all close enough to be connected by bridges and are usually referred to together as the Island of Bermuda. The islands were first discovered by Jaun de Bermudez in 1503. Juan was a Spanish explorer and, although the island is named after him he didn't attempt to land on the islands because of the dangerous reef. Over 100 years later in 1609, George Somers was leading a group of colonists from England when they were shipwrecked on Bermuda. They found the island to be uninhabited. They were stranded there for 10 months. When they returned and told stories of the beautiful island, King James decided to extend the Charter of the Virginia Company to include it in 1612. That sam...

Silver from the Colonies... The British Empire sprung from overseas possessions and trading posts set-up by England from the end of the 16th century.  Although it was in the early 20th century that it was at its peak, it began being referred to as the British Empire in the nineteenth century.   A map showing the British Empire in 1886 Although the bulk of sterling silver items were made in the United Kingdom and exported to the colonies, wherever there were significant populations, gold and silversmiths were there working.  Items produced by these local silversmiths are known as 'British Colonial Silver'.   The most common (and most researched) places that British colonial silver will turn up from are India, Canada, South Africa and Australia.  Each of these have some great reference books available (let me know if you are interested in any of these, as I often have copies for sale).   An impressive piece made by Wendt, Australia (...