humanities, note card 10

Notecards

10: Silversmith

Quote:

The 18th-century silversmith was thought of as someone akin to a sculptor. Both had to know how to shape their materials with artistic talent, taste, and design.

A contemporary observed that the silversmith was:

“employed in making all manner of utensils . . . either for Ornament or Use. His work is either performed in the Mould, or beat into Figure by the Hammer.”

Consider the fashioning of a coffeepot. The silversmith melted sterling in a graphite and clay crucible to about 2,000°. He poured the liquid silver into a tallow-greased, sooted cast-iron mold to produce an ingot. Using a large hammer, he would hot-forge the ingot into a billet – a thick sheet that he would then cut into a circle. Using “raising” hammers, anvils, and stakes, the smith would stretch the piece of silver into a thinner piece as he hammered against the anvils, cupping it into a bowl shape.

Paraphrase:

1. The silversmith had not only to make an item, it had to be creative and pretty too.
2. The silversmith would make utensils from a mould or he would beat the silver with a hammer.
3. The silversmith would first melt silver down in a graphite and clay crucible until the silver would reach temperatures of 2,000°.
4. Then he would pour the liquid silver into an iron mold to turn it into a silver ingot.
5. He would next heat up the ingot and hit it with a large hammer.
6. He would hit the ingot until it was a thick sheet of silver.
7. The silversmith would cut the sheet of silver into circular shapes using a tool and then he would stretch the silver thinner by pounding on it with a hammer over anvils.
8. Finally, the silversmith would shape the silver into a bowl by using many smith tools.

My Ideas:

I wonder how big the circles would be compared to how big the bowls would turn out to be? Probably the silversmith would have had to make the silver plates much bigger than the bowls. I would probably make the silver plates  too small and waste it if I was a silversmith. This was probably a job that required a lot of experience, because the silversmith had to make perfect circles and stretch the silver perfectly. I wonder if silversmithing was a harder job then blacksmithing? Probably the answer is yes because silversmiths made something from scratch and blacksmiths did not. I wonder if silversmiths made more gentury class items and if they had greater honor? I think the answer is again yes because the products the silversmiths’ made were made for beauty more than function. I wonder what other kinds of things silversmith made? Probably the silversmiths made candle holders and door handles. I wonder if Africans were better at making silver items than iron items? I wonder if silversmiths ever used iron instead of silver? Maybe the silversmiths did do this to try to sell it as if it was silver to make extra money.

History:

Created: 11/07/2016 04:22 PM