INDUSTRIAL ART AT THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO - 1914
The thirteenth annual exhibition of industrial art, including the work of Hungarian potters and weavers, and a collection of tapestries and weavings made by the Herter looms of New York, opened at the Art Institute, Chicago, on the third of October. Associated with the general art crafts, which assumed the character of a cosmopolitan display, was the special exhibition of old American samplers from the collection of Mrs. Emma B. Hodge, the twenty-second annual exhibition of the Chicago Ceramic Art Association, and the third annual exhibition of the Chicago Society of Miniature Painters.
The installation of these varied yet related art products indicated progress in ideas of tasteful arrangement. The walls of the galleries were draped with rugs, fabrics and tapestries; the metal work, pottery, baskets, and embroideries disposed in cases which were placed to form alcoves where jewelry or the smaller objects could be viewed intimately, and the scheme held together with decorations of autumn leaves, and large jars of autumn flowers. The lighting effects with diffused illumination, lamps and lanterns, added to the general effectiveness. The installation itself is regarded by the artists as a work of art, and is a result of the study of the question by Miss Bennett who has charge of this Work, and who has looked into the arrangement of exhibits which were successful in European museums.
The catalog includes 1,252 pieces of jewelry, pottery, embroideries, framed designs, weavings, wood carvings and various handicrafts. Of the regular exhibitors the silver of Arthur J. Stone, designer, Gardner, Massachusetts, is superior in all particulars. Robert Jarvie, Chicago, has handsome trophies and pieces of table service of his own design; and George P. Blanchard, Gardner, Massachusetts; Elizabeth E. Copeland, Boston; George C. Gebelein, Boston; F. J. R. Gyllenberg, Boston; Millicent Strange, Washington, D. C.; Mildred Watkins, of Cleveland; Harry S. Whitbeck. of Mount Washington, Massachusetts; Arthur S. Williams and James T. Woolley, both of Boston, each contribute notable examples of artistic Silversmithery. The jewelers with innumerable exquisite designs make up a fascinating section of the show. The jewelry is regarded to be of a higher standard than of other years. James H. Winn, of Chicago, shows a good selection, one that embraces much of his work of recent months loaned by the patrons who have purchased the ornaments. Mabel W. Luther, of Providence, Rhode Island; Mrs. William H. Klapp, of New York; F. Walter Lawrence, of New York; The Odd Shop, Des Moines, Iowa; Margaret Rogers, Boston; the Rokesley Shop, Cleveland, Ohio; Josephine H. Shaw, Duxbury, Massachusetts; Ella S. Underwood, Los Angeles; the Elverhoj Colony; Mr. and Mrs. Laurence B. Dixon, of Riverside, California, and the Alchauquin Studios, New York, display examples that are worthy of notice.
Source: Art and Progress - November 1914
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Arthur J. Stone - Further Information
Re: Arthur J. Stone - Further Information
An image of an Arthur J. Stone silver bowl from 1922:
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The Latest Patents
ISSUE OF OCTOBER 13, 1891
Design 21,115. ORNAMENTATION OF TABLEWARE. Arthur J. Stone, Gardner, Mass., assignor to Frank W. Smith, same place.—Application filed November 26, 1890. Serial No. 372,748. Term of patent 3½ years.
Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 21st October 1891
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ISSUE OF OCTOBER 13, 1891
Design 21,115. ORNAMENTATION OF TABLEWARE. Arthur J. Stone, Gardner, Mass., assignor to Frank W. Smith, same place.—Application filed November 26, 1890. Serial No. 372,748. Term of patent 3½ years.
Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 21st October 1891
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An example of the work and mark of Arthur J. Stone:
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Howard & Co. - New York - 1895
Howard & Co. was the partnership of Joseph Platt Howard and Arthur J. Stone, it was formed around 1895 and lasted until its dissolution on the 12th July 1897.
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An advertisement from Frank W. Smith issued during the period that Arthur J. Stone was the designer and head of hollowware department:
Frank W. Smith - Gardner, Mass. - 1890
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Frank W. Smith - Gardner, Mass. - 1890
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Proceedings of the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass., Nov. 20.—A special meeting of the Society of Arts and Crafts was held last Tuesday evening, the first vice-president, A. Wadsworth Longfellow, presiding. The fee for life membership was increased from $50 to $75. It was also voted to provide for a majority of “masters’’ on the council, instead of two-thirds as formerly, and to consider five members a quorum.
Mrs. Arthur J. Stone, of Gardner, Mass., read a paper on hand-wrought silver, and a discussion followed.
The society’s committee on exhibitions has announced a schedule of special exhibits at the Park St. headquarters. These include “Silverware,” from Nov. 17 to Dec. 4; “Jewelry,” from Dec. 8 to Dec. 31; “Pottery,” from Jan. 12 to Jan. 22; “Copper, Brass, Pewter and Iron,” Feb. 9 to Feb. 26 “Ecclesiastical Work,” March 2 to March 26; “Trophies and Presentation Pieces,” April 13 to April 23; "Jewelry,” May 11 to May 21 ; “Silverware,” May 25 to June 4.
Source: The Jewelers' Circular- 24th November 1909
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Boston, Mass., Nov. 20.—A special meeting of the Society of Arts and Crafts was held last Tuesday evening, the first vice-president, A. Wadsworth Longfellow, presiding. The fee for life membership was increased from $50 to $75. It was also voted to provide for a majority of “masters’’ on the council, instead of two-thirds as formerly, and to consider five members a quorum.
Mrs. Arthur J. Stone, of Gardner, Mass., read a paper on hand-wrought silver, and a discussion followed.
The society’s committee on exhibitions has announced a schedule of special exhibits at the Park St. headquarters. These include “Silverware,” from Nov. 17 to Dec. 4; “Jewelry,” from Dec. 8 to Dec. 31; “Pottery,” from Jan. 12 to Jan. 22; “Copper, Brass, Pewter and Iron,” Feb. 9 to Feb. 26 “Ecclesiastical Work,” March 2 to March 26; “Trophies and Presentation Pieces,” April 13 to April 23; "Jewelry,” May 11 to May 21 ; “Silverware,” May 25 to June 4.
Source: The Jewelers' Circular- 24th November 1909
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Re: Arthur J. Stone - Further Information
During the recent shut down at the factory of Frank W. Smith, Gardner, Mass., a good deal of new machinery was added in preparation for the increased business of the coming year. Mr. Stone, foreman of the hollow-ware department, has been absent in Europe in search of new ideas.
Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 11th February 1891
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Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 11th February 1891
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A silver box by Howard & Co.:
HOWARD & Co. - NEW YORK - STERLING - H3
Howard & Co. was the partnership of Joseph Platt Howard and Arthur J. Stone, it was formed around 1895 and lasted until its dissolution on the 12th July 1897.
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HOWARD & Co. - NEW YORK - STERLING - H3
Howard & Co. was the partnership of Joseph Platt Howard and Arthur J. Stone, it was formed around 1895 and lasted until its dissolution on the 12th July 1897.
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Re: Arthur J. Stone - Further Information
An example of the work of Sylvanus E. Lamprey who worked for Arthur Stone 1909-1912:
The making of hand-wrought silver is the revival of an art that was almost lost sight of until a few years ago, since which time there has been a continual branching out. The rather “crude hammered” pieces which marked the early stages of craft in this direction have been replaced by masterly creations in its most varied forms. S. E. Lamprey, with his thirty-five years' experience, makes a complete line for the table in original design and also executes suggested ideas. Specialty is made of matching old pieces.
Source: An Illustrated Annual of Works by American Artists & Craft Workers - Artists Guild Galleries - Chicago - 1916
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The making of hand-wrought silver is the revival of an art that was almost lost sight of until a few years ago, since which time there has been a continual branching out. The rather “crude hammered” pieces which marked the early stages of craft in this direction have been replaced by masterly creations in its most varied forms. S. E. Lamprey, with his thirty-five years' experience, makes a complete line for the table in original design and also executes suggested ideas. Specialty is made of matching old pieces.
Source: An Illustrated Annual of Works by American Artists & Craft Workers - Artists Guild Galleries - Chicago - 1916
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Re: Arthur J. Stone - Further Information
.....Coming back to the individual craftsmen, we find that there are a few who, today, are producing silver in practically the same way that it was made in the Eighteenth Century; that is to say, each is working alone, or in co-operation with two or three others and doing most of the work by hand.
The dean of the group is Arthur J. Stone of Boston, and our headpiece* shows a tea set, water pitcher and round tray by him. Mr. Stone is especially noted for his flat silver — forks, knives and spoons, simple in design and extremely well balanced. Others represented in the headpiece are: James T. Wooley, who made the bowl at the left; the oval platter is by Porter Blanchard; the two fluted compotes are the work of F. J. Gyllenberg, and the bowl at the left is by Karl F. Leinonen. Each of these pieces bears the name of the individual artist who designed and executed it. Robert Jarvie, of Chicago, is another well known silversmith. Silver by these men can always be found at the Little Gallery in New York, the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, and the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit.
Source: Arts & Decoration - June 1921
* I could not find the image mentioned.
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The dean of the group is Arthur J. Stone of Boston, and our headpiece* shows a tea set, water pitcher and round tray by him. Mr. Stone is especially noted for his flat silver — forks, knives and spoons, simple in design and extremely well balanced. Others represented in the headpiece are: James T. Wooley, who made the bowl at the left; the oval platter is by Porter Blanchard; the two fluted compotes are the work of F. J. Gyllenberg, and the bowl at the left is by Karl F. Leinonen. Each of these pieces bears the name of the individual artist who designed and executed it. Robert Jarvie, of Chicago, is another well known silversmith. Silver by these men can always be found at the Little Gallery in New York, the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, and the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit.
Source: Arts & Decoration - June 1921
* I could not find the image mentioned.
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Arthur J. Stone - Gardner, Mass. - 1911
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THE WARREN TROPHY
The fine punch bowl shown in this issue has just been completed for the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, the design being by Mr. C. Howard Walker of Boston and the trophy has been made at the shop of Mr. Arthur J. Stone of Gardner, Massachusetts.
The bowl is 14 inches in diameter and stands 7 inches high. It is in silver with the exception of the polo balls and the lower mouldings surrounding the panels, which are of gold. This is one of the most notable pieces of silver which the Boston Society, famous for its silversmiths, has ever done. The design shows groups of polo players in characteristic action placed in a band around the top of the bowl, within segments divided by polo mallets.The small panels are in cast silver, and are vigorous and alive. The effect of the trophy is to emphasize, by orderly design and exquisite workmanship, the lead which the silversmiths of the Boston Society hold, and the new traditions in craftsmanship which they are forming.
The trophy is in memory of Mr. S. D. Warren, long a member of the Boston Society, and president of the Trustees of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and president of the Dedham Polo and Country Club. The funds for its purchase were raised by subscription and the bowl is to be played for annually, the club winning it five times to retain it.
Source: Handicraft - April 1912
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The fine punch bowl shown in this issue has just been completed for the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, the design being by Mr. C. Howard Walker of Boston and the trophy has been made at the shop of Mr. Arthur J. Stone of Gardner, Massachusetts.
The bowl is 14 inches in diameter and stands 7 inches high. It is in silver with the exception of the polo balls and the lower mouldings surrounding the panels, which are of gold. This is one of the most notable pieces of silver which the Boston Society, famous for its silversmiths, has ever done. The design shows groups of polo players in characteristic action placed in a band around the top of the bowl, within segments divided by polo mallets.The small panels are in cast silver, and are vigorous and alive. The effect of the trophy is to emphasize, by orderly design and exquisite workmanship, the lead which the silversmiths of the Boston Society hold, and the new traditions in craftsmanship which they are forming.
The trophy is in memory of Mr. S. D. Warren, long a member of the Boston Society, and president of the Trustees of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and president of the Dedham Polo and Country Club. The funds for its purchase were raised by subscription and the bowl is to be played for annually, the club winning it five times to retain it.
Source: Handicraft - April 1912
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Arthur J. Stone - Gardner, Mass. - 1912
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Arts and Crafts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In connection with the Conference of the National League of Handicraft Societies, recently held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, at the suggestion of The Society of Arts and Crafts, which has been headquarters of the League since its inception in 1907, the Museum invited the local Society to hold an exhibition of work by its members in the Forecourt room.
The time for preparation was too short to permit the making of objects specially for the exhibition and the result was, therefore, striking evidence of the resources of this Society. The intention of the committee in charge was to make as representative an exhibit as possible, while limiting the number of articles and keeping the standard high, so that the room, as a whole, and the objects individually, might compare favorably with the collections of old work in the other galleries.
The exhibits were shown in cases specially built for the recent loan exhibition in Copley Hall. There were one case of embroideries, two of bookbindings, one of leather, one of carved and gilded wood, three of pottery, five of silver, two of jewelry, two of wrought iron, two of brass and copper and one of printing and illuminating.
It is not possible in a brief review to attempt any detailed critical description of the exhibits, but a few of the more notable pieces can be mentioned. Mr. Frank Koralewsky exhibited the remarkable iron lock, which has already been described in Art And Progress, and a notable collection of iron work (in the main for St. Thomas's Church, New York), made by him and his associates in the shop of Frederick Krasser. A solid gold racing trophy, presented by Commodore F. L. Clark to the winner of the Eastern Yacht Club's schooner race from New London to Marblehead on July 1st, made by Mr. Arthur J. Stone from a design by Mr. C. Howard Walker, was specially to be remarked for beauty of design and workmanship, as were several pieces of silverware, likewise the work of Mr. Stone, lent by President Eliot, Miss Julia Marlowe and others.
Source: Arts and Progress - July 1911
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In connection with the Conference of the National League of Handicraft Societies, recently held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, at the suggestion of The Society of Arts and Crafts, which has been headquarters of the League since its inception in 1907, the Museum invited the local Society to hold an exhibition of work by its members in the Forecourt room.
The time for preparation was too short to permit the making of objects specially for the exhibition and the result was, therefore, striking evidence of the resources of this Society. The intention of the committee in charge was to make as representative an exhibit as possible, while limiting the number of articles and keeping the standard high, so that the room, as a whole, and the objects individually, might compare favorably with the collections of old work in the other galleries.
The exhibits were shown in cases specially built for the recent loan exhibition in Copley Hall. There were one case of embroideries, two of bookbindings, one of leather, one of carved and gilded wood, three of pottery, five of silver, two of jewelry, two of wrought iron, two of brass and copper and one of printing and illuminating.
It is not possible in a brief review to attempt any detailed critical description of the exhibits, but a few of the more notable pieces can be mentioned. Mr. Frank Koralewsky exhibited the remarkable iron lock, which has already been described in Art And Progress, and a notable collection of iron work (in the main for St. Thomas's Church, New York), made by him and his associates in the shop of Frederick Krasser. A solid gold racing trophy, presented by Commodore F. L. Clark to the winner of the Eastern Yacht Club's schooner race from New London to Marblehead on July 1st, made by Mr. Arthur J. Stone from a design by Mr. C. Howard Walker, was specially to be remarked for beauty of design and workmanship, as were several pieces of silverware, likewise the work of Mr. Stone, lent by President Eliot, Miss Julia Marlowe and others.
Source: Arts and Progress - July 1911
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BYWAYS AMONG CRAFTSMEN
By Mrs. Arthur J. Stone
Is it that the perfection of mechanical ingenuity, endlessly repeating its given form, induces in us a weariness of surfeit, knowing as we do that the relentless and intricate machinery, which fashioned some highly wrought factor of our own home furnishing, still whirs its ever increasing duplicates into countless other homes? Is it that through greater numbers and more abundant means a natural separation is resulting, and that the culture of the mind whose habit is formed to the love of the pure in music, and the noble expression of the soul in art and literature, is demanding for itself an environment of intimate surroundings which shall be in harmony with the less tangible life which is within?
The comparative newness of the term Craftsman applied to American conditions, leaves its work to some extent a prey to volatile enthusiasms and uncertainties. Along certain lines its efforts must of necessity be experimental. Trusts and combinations, the great live issues which largely constitute to-day's industrial problem, expanding and absorbing till the mind grows dulled in its effort to comprehend the measure of their magnitude, seem scarcely to leave so much as a crevice where the aspiration of the craftsman may lodge long enough to take root. Every energy of the manufacturing world is strained, even to the uttermost, in a universal, maddening effort to reduce luxury to its lowest terms. The upholstered chair, the silver spoon must be put within the reach of all men, even though the fabric is so cheapened as to become shabby directly under wear, and the weight of the spoon is scaled down to the minimum, while utility in both cases is lost to sight in the elaboration of meaningless ornament.
Against this chaos of hurried, unsound workmanship, overloaded with ornament, whose purpose none the less among us than in those days when Shakespeare noted it, is still to deceive the eye, diverting it from truer and more lasting merit, the voice of the craftsman pleads for a proper balance of durability, utility, fitness of purpose and harmony in ornament. He can but know that the masses will pass on unheeding, perhaps never knowing that the voice was there, but he looks to find, somewhere in the throng, others who have wished for yet sought in vain the things which he has found missing. It is not alone the purpose to arouse a sentiment for the recognition of truer merit that impels him to action. The vast system of machine-made laws, which govern the manufactures of to-day, limits and holds him in his work, to a narrow scope that is little better than that of the machine itself. These demand skilled labor and alert intelligence, but the necessities of production require it to be concentrated in a single direction, specialized. He may hammer for all his working years, forever shaping his alloted silver, without any distinct notion of the processes which have resulted in the flat piece from which he builds, or of the steps required to produce the smooth, polished surface of the finish. If. he becomes restive under the sameness of constant repetition, the best he can hope for is in the variation of characteristic styles, which he may find through change to some other shop. The scope of his individuality is diminished, until he loses sight of it altogether in the mechanical routine to which he is bound. Fettered though he is, courage is necessary if he would break away. Individuality is overwhelmed in multiplicity, and must yet depend upon recognition. Should he possess skill to fashion his work from beginning to finish the time consumed in each process must of necessity exceed that of the workman whose every day repeats that of the one just past, and who nevertheless is in a measure bound to be his competitor. He can only dare through love, setting aside much that the world rates high, and trusting that somewhere in a shadowy future he may at least find footing. A Cellini or John de Bologna might to-day tread fearlessly among us, but somewhere below the pinnacles the ground takes on uncertainty.
In a brotherhood of craftsmen, drawn together and united by common ideals and purposes, the pathways which lead to a general meeting-ground are many and varied; and a long-trodden and familiar way, to well acquainted eyes seemingly unmarked by special feature, may to those more strange present many an interesting turn. Along one of these it is the purpose of this sketch to follow. Its subject was born something like half a century ago in that begrimed and dingy city, which, despite man's best efforts to render it unlovely, is yet so rich in the natural charms of its environment as to offer defiance to his disregard. The seed of the craftsman finds here soil favorable to development. The skill of his forbears fashioned the " Sheffield thwytle" which Chaucer's pilgrim carried tucked in his hose, and out from those far-off years he has been steadily moving toward us, a resistless army, mostly lost in the rank and file, but occasionally, as with Chantry, Godfrey Sykes, or Stevens rising to single eminence.
Ruskin knew his sturdy merit, and singling out a favorite beauty spot on the suburban hills, bought and endowed a museum which should be for his advancement. Its purpose was one with St. George's Guild, a society established by him in London, and one or two other industrial centres, to give opportunity to artistic workmen. It was a movement ideal in its conception, but never obtained a strong, decisive hold. The museum, small but selected by Ruskin with the utmost care, was removed after some years to a less beautiful but more attainable location, where it is now maintained by the municipality with reverential pride.
The city is oftenest heard of through its iron and steel industries, the famous Cutlers' Guild, founded in the sixteenth century, having figured in many a historical event; but it also holds an eminent place in the manufacture of silver, most notable, perhaps, from being the home of the older, now unused form of silver plating on copper.
Jealously and as a sacred trust the craftsman has guarded the secrets of his work, believing that with him rested the output and value of his labor. He has fought with undaunted valor the invasion of his cherished rights, and adjusted himself reluctantly to inevitable defeat. In desperation he bound himself in Trades Unions, and not even murder withheld him from his purpose to withstand the encroachment of advance. Within thirty years he has decreed, that in a stated number of hours, a given number of men will accomplish a limited production, which must maintain the standard wage he had established; only to find his hold lost and his business gone. Only by inches will he yield his ground, and he listens with scornful incredulity to the warnings of the farsighted in his clan, which of late years have been sounded with increasing frequency. After all, his contention is not so far removed from our own, for the standard of his material, and the time he insists on, give to his work a lasting merit, the lack of which we constantly deplore in our up-to-date lightning processes. English silver acquires an added interest from the careful marking under government supervision which fixes its date and sterling quality. Not long ago a traveler became covetous of a certain pair of fine sugar nippers, of a style no longer used, belonging to a friend, and searching among many antique shops finally found an inferior pair which were purchased. No particular attention was given to the date letter, the purchaser assuming that they were of a period some fifty years back. It was therefore in the nature of a surprise to find, some time later, when the inspiration came to look it up, that they were made in the year of the purchase, and left with a dull, worn-looking finish to catch the unwary. The standard of silver, which is also our own, has remained practically unchanged for five hundred years. Two hundred years ago it was raised for about twenty-five years, but the test of wear proved it too soft to be durable. This silver has the figure of Britannia stamped upon it, and is known to the trade as Queen Anne silver. Its standard is still lawful, but seldom called for. With the date and sterling mark of all English silver is also the mark of the office at which it is assayed, and the registered mark of the maker, or the shop from which it is sold. There are now seven offices where silver may be assayed, some of the older ones, like York and Exeter, having been discontinued. London is the oldest among them, its leopard's head being so highly esteemed that it is not unusual for manufacturers in the other cities to send their work there for its marks. At the Goldsmith's Hall in London, date letters are preserved from the time of Queen Elizabeth; Edinburgh has date letters from the seventeenth century, and Dublin from somewhat later: but for the most part the lists begin close upon the date of our independence, that of Sheffield starting in 1773. It has been recently reported that American manufacturers are sending over parts to get the stamp of the English assay. Such cases are provided for by a fifth mark, F, added to those already mentioned. The Ecclesiastical plate of the old churches is often of great interest, and pieces of the latter half of the seventeenth century are not uncommon. The most valuable private collection seldom contains a piece prior to the eighteenth century. Early in the nineteenth century there was developed in Sheffield a new method of fusing a thin piece of silver upon copper or brass which was christened with the name of the city. Attaching silver to baser metal by means of solder had been known from remote times. The gay caparisons of horse and rider in the tournaments made a demand for work of this sort, and Otley, a little town to the north of Sheffield, was long a center of its trade. It is related that as the call of such trappings went out, its craftsmen drifted toward Sheffield, and it is not unlikely that through their knowledge and skill the copper plating was perfected.
It was at once recognized and copied by the French, who had hitherto known only the joining by means of solder, and was used for fifty years or more, when the modern process of electro-plating superseded it. For a time after the discovery of the latter method, following a common law, the old plate was discredited, and many a fine piece suffered in careless hands. To-day collectors place a choice piece of Sheffield plate side by side with sterling silver. In the older process, after the fusion of the metals, the piece was rolled until just a coating of silver was spread over its entire surface, when it was ready for shaping. The mounts were stamped in the thinnest silver, the work of a stamper requiring particular skill. These thin stampings were filled with soft solder, and sweated on to the body by gentle heat. An old joke of the trade was to the effect that stampings could not be allowed near an open window lest they be blown away. The unsophisticated of to-day are often dismayed, after a vigorous polishing, to see the ugly black of the solder appearing in the mount, or the less objectionable copper shimmering through the silver body. The fortunate possessor of a fine bit of copper plate learns to be very tender with it. Oftentimes the beauty of its form and the richness of its mount rival the solid plate. A heavy, elaborate mount, and, in the trays and snuffer trays, highly ornate flat chasing belong to its period. In the simpler mounts, the egg and dart and gadroon are often exceptionally fine. And again we have seen in the hands of private collectors pieces wholly devoid of ornament save for the fluting, and so chaste in form as easily to pass for sterling, were it not for the absence of the valued hall marks.
In the past ten or twelve years it has become increasingly difficult to obtain genuinely fine specimens, particularly of the smaller pieces. Kensington has made a choice collection, and the Sheffield Museum, alive to its connection with the industries of its city, has an authorized agent watching any opportunity to add to its number of beautiful pieces. The great wine coolers of the period, having outgrown their original use, are occasionally seen in the fine hotels, adorning the dining table. Being urn shape, with handles, they form most ideal fern pots.
It was following the decadence of copper plating that our little lad had forced upon him that most serious question of making a way in the world. The death of the father, after a long and weary illness, which exhausted the little surplus that had been accumulated, left the brother and sister with practically no resources other than the love of a good mother. Schoolroom doors closed behind him at the age of eleven. England, not quite ready even yet to grant freely and liberally the education of her children, left the matter in those days entirely to the discretion of her church which, secure from molestation, went indifferently about it. On what merit her teachers were chosen is not evident, but it is certain that in the boys' schools, tyranny of rod and deep intimacy with the bottom of the ale mug did not disqualify. Dingy and cold, comfortless and cheerless, with its one little grate fire, and its hundred and more boys, the schoolroom lingers in the memory, far enough removed from the finely equipped buildings and trained teachers of which the city proudly boasts to-day. Somehow in that brief period, despite the anxious eye which followed the mood of the master, the great foundation rudiments were gathered and absorbed.
Then followed several years in which such work as a little lad may do, by way of errand boy, and other service sometimes heavy for small hands, went to help out the over-burdened mother, until having reached the age of fourteen it was settled that he should follow a trade of the family and become a silversmith.
Disheartening enough must have been the mother's experience in her first effort to find a master for the would-be apprentice, for she was told that he would only accept one on payment of a premium of twenty pounds. Further effort resulted in better fortune, and a certain blue document drawn up in legal form on the fourteenth birthday, remains to tell the conditions of her contract.
Stamped for the city and the revenue of two shillings six pence, and beginning in heavy black old English type, " This indenture made the . . . day of ... in the . . . year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady Victoria," it sets forth the contract of mother and son on the one side, and master on the other, for a period of seven years. It requires that the son enter upon the contract of his own free-will, and with his mother's consent; and during all this time the son agrees to "serve his said master faithfully, keep his secrets, observe his lawful commands, forbear to do him hurt, or injury, either in his person or property, attend regularly and diligently to his affairs and interest, account honestly for all money, goods, and effects which shall be committed to his . . . charge, and deliver up the same as and when required so to do, and in every respect conduct himself as an industrious and trustworthy apprentice." The master agrees for "himself his executors, administrators and assigns " that he will teach or cause to be taught the trade or business of designer, modeler and chaser. Then the wages follow: for the first two years the mother shall receive three shillings a week, for two years more five shillings a week, for the next two years eight shillings a week, and for the year remaining ten shillings a week. The mother then binds herself to find and provide her son with " wholesome and sufficient meat, drink, lodging, wearing apparel, medical and surgical aid, and all other necessaries suitable for his trade and employment." Brave mother, to promise so much on so small a stipend. This completes the indenture, which is signed, sealed and witnessed by the three, and all being happily arranged, it is the master's part to give his lad a " fastening penny" in the shape of half a crown.
An apprentice could not be lawfully bound under the age of fourteen, and being so bound, not even for the army could he break his indenture without mutual consent duly witnessed. Such a system would seem to suggest that there are things outside of Heaven that are not reached at a single bound, and the slow mounting of the ladder infers things irksome and little to the taste in our day and time. It is undoubtedly true that no long drawn out apprenticeship will ensure skill unless the temperament of the workman holds some note responsive to his work. Equally so genius untamed by the tools of its craft, scatters itself as waste material. The youngest apprentice is not without initiatory duties. He must settle his status with the big boys, oftentimes by a vigorous use of his fists. He must sweep and keep tidy the smudgy little shop, run errands for his master, hold work for him with careful attention, and at half-past four in the afternoon he must attend to the mashing of the tea, which each associate has brought from home, ready for the boiling water, wrapped in a bit of paper, with sugar, and a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to bring out its full strength. Half an hour is given to this national repast, then work goes on again until seven. In large centers like Sheffield there are established National Schools of Design, offshoots of the noble parent at South Kensington, and partly endowed by the government. To this school our apprentice, who would learn design, was expected to go for three nights in a week, after his day's work was done. A course in geometrical drawing was first required, followed by freehand. These schools, then in their youth, have been a steadily increasing power in developing the understanding of art principles among the people, and the present-day curriculum is much enlarged. A small tuition is asked, and deficits have been liberally subscribed by the manufacturers, who realize great benefit from them. The apprenticeship required fifty-nine hours a week, and to pay even a small tuition our lad must work overtime for the nights remaining, except on Saturday, when he was free from five o'clock. It is not strange that instruction, attended by such excessive demand, should have been curtailed to strict necessity. Designing and modeling were not definitely taught him during any period of his apprenticeship. If he were apt he might gain a knowledge which would lead to their development in later years, if not he would become, through practice, a skilful chaser, following a prescribed pattern, for he was held during the whole time strictly to chasing and fluting. Weeks were given to acquiring command of the small tools used in this work, and to the making and tempering of them. The old chaser gradually acquires a standing army of hundreds of these little punches, wholly bewildering to the uninitiated, but among which he chooses with deft certainty according to his needs. The making of the pitch which is to hold the work, the methods of laying out and putting on the pattern, are all parts of his trade. Large, plated center and dessert pieces, with glass holders for fruit and flowers, were in vogue in these first years. They were often incongruous in design, sometimes with grapes and vines ornamenting the standard, and perhaps two cast deer on the base underneath. The grapes were cast in bunches, the leaves separately, and all were joined by means of solder. Having gained some command of his tools, one of the first tasks was the chasing of many and many a hundred of the grapes. The leaves were elaborately done with minute veining both front and back, but they belonged to days of more experience. Repetition was the order of the times, and the Greek key, and two scrolls with shell became chased indelibly into the memory.
In the making of any given piece of hollow ware, such as a tea pot, the designer will make from his drawing a half-section of its parts in clay. The body being hammered, or by the quicker method spun, serves simply to model the parts proportionately, or it may be to show the relief of the ornament. From the handle and spout a plaster cast is taken, which having been removed from the model is carefully lined with clay to the required thickness of the silver, and a second plaster is poured over it. The two plasters being separated, and the thin clay removed, there remains upon fitting them together again, a hollow space which represents the desired part. Into this hollow, hot wax is poured and, the plasters being once more separated, a wax model is obtained, from which may be cast a more durable fac-simile in brass. The brass model is turned over to the chaser, who exercises the utmost care to work out every imperfection, and to leave no part so undercut as to interfere with the drawing off of the final silver casting. It is only as the apprenticeship nears its close that important work of this kind is undertaken.
Rapid growth and close application (for beside the hours required, many another of overtime went to secure some coveted desire) told upon the physical strength of the boy, without defeating his steadfast will to acquire the best. For somehow in this period, by means of the little Clementi piano in the home, he managed to acquire an appreciative knowledge of the great masters, as well as to become familiar with the noted writings of the day. It must have been the saving grace of the holidays, so dear to the English heart, that brought him at last to the strength of manhood. Upon the arrival of each long-anticipated day, provided with umbrella and knapsack, he left behind the gas and smoke of daily life, tramping unnumbered miles over moor and dale, till all the country round about was friendly and familiar; acquiring in his maturer years an endurance that made long distances a delight, and took him afoot over great portions of his native shire. The holidays begun with Shrove Tuesday, when the master was in duty bound to give his lad fourteen pence. Church must not be omitted on that day. Easter was a long holiday, beginning with Good Friday and lasting over Easter Monday and Tuesday. Whitsuntide found the hawthorn whitening the hedge-rows, the blackbirds and thrushes lilting in the soft new green of the trees, the lark rising high over the field-roads, and the cuckoos answering across the woodlands.
But Christmas was the great time of the year, and coming as it did in the busy season, the overtime system was carried to its greatest lengths. For two or three weeks before its arrival work was kept up until midnight, often at the last until later yet. On the last work morning, the morning before Christmas, the boys and girls gathered in the hall of the salesroom, singing Christmas hymns together before ending the year's work and beginning a week of great festivity.
The close of the seven years was made a matter of celebration among the men. Its beginning, as we have said, was marked with the fastening penny, and by quite a natural sequence the end was known as the losing. In the morning of the last day, all over the shop, the boys suspended the stakes used in shaping the silver, and at intervals the youngest apprentice would beat upon them with a wooden mallet, the others joining in. The old-time stake was made of steel, so the result was a merry, musical, chime-like jangle.
The afternoon was made a holiday with a feast at some little inn outside the town, and as it drew to a close the lad just coming into his majority was chaired or crowned, by being placed in a chair upon the table, while the two apprentices next oldest held a brimming punch bowl over his head, and the others about him chanted some jingling doggerel whose burden was,
"Here's to he who is now set free,
That once was a 'prentice lad."
Then the indentures, which up to this time had been in the keeping of the lawyer, were given over to him, and with their possession he passed out of bondage.
It would seem as if in the apprenticeship system the conditions greatly favored the master. It was not usual for him to have but one apprentice at a time; quite often the father passed his trade in this way to his son. The larger firms taxed a master two shillings a week for his apprentice. A bright boy soon earned the wage paid him, and long before he was out of his time was a source of profit to his master. His instruction seems generally to have been based upon what he could earn, rather than upon consideration of what would be for his best development. With freedom came the real test of the workman, in the more extended opportunities open to him, where he might confine himself to some special line of work embraced in his trade, or broaden and enlarge in all directions upon what he had acquired.
Soon after the losing our craftsman became restive, and drawn by the historic beauty of Edinburgh, applied quite hap-hazard for work in one of its shops. He had the luck to find them in need of help, and in about three months after the close of his apprenticeship was earning thirty-five shillings a week, a very satisfactory wage for the time. It need hardly be mentioned that the good mother, at home with her daughter, now found her burdens lightened. Here was a true little handicraft shop, close upon Princes Street, employing about twenty men, where the silver was melted and rolled, and the work hammered and cast. The power was furnished by a wooden wheel some ten feet in diameter, reaching from floor to ceiling, which was turned by a powerful half-witted fellow of whom the others were wont to say " Wully has a want." It was kept in work by one of the two largest Princes Street shops, and fine things went out from it, from the various small trappings that adorn the Scotch regalia, to rich and heavy hollow ware.
Our craftsman was entrusted with the chasing of two vases with tops, standing eighteen inches, each of which employed him for three months in the doing, and it was here that he was first actively engaged in design. During his stay the fine old silver plate of the house of Bute, consisting of hundreds of plates and trays, was brought down to be renovated and put in order in honor of the coming of age of the young Marquis.
At the hour of afternoon tea, the apprentices would get together for merry contests over their hornpipes, one of their number whistling on and on, with never a final cadence, after the endless fashion of the true Scotch jig.
There was no lack of incentive for the much loved tramps, and Sundays and holidays found him afield, among the crags of Arthur's Seat, studying the lavish art of Rosslyn Chapel, or enjoying the restful peace of Melrose or the district about Abbotsford. Most fortunate in having for a room-mate a young native of Ayr, who was a devotee of Burns, he joined in his enthusiasm, and together they acquired many of his finer poems, as they sat by their " ingle bleezing brightly," and toasted and munched the oatcakes which the Scotch mother sent them. A year passed quickly and pleasantly, at the end of which he was able to make a change for the better, and returned to his home to a shop not larger than the one he was leaving, but progressive in its arrangements and appliances. After the freedom of the year just passed the sharper lines of subdivision in the work were most noticeable. The hammerer was no longer a mounter, and the flat chaser was distinct from the worker in repousse. Indeed, flat chasing was in decline, and the skilled workmen who wrought the beautiful flowing lines of delicate scrolls to be seen on fine examples of its period were nearly of the past.
Our craftsman now found himself able to take up a further study of design, under private instruction of one of the masters of the school, until he was confronted with a most troublesome difficulty through failure of his eyes from too close application. For weeks he faced the threatened undoing of his craft, but absolute rest, prescribed by a noted London specialist, averted the danger, imposing a more cautious future.
In three years more, change was again made to one of the larger firms. The silver of this period was marked by beautiful fluting, which is in the department of the chaser. It was also a time when the bodies of sets were covered all over with repousse, even to the bottoms. The signs of the zodiac done in twelve little panels had great popularity, and a set with scenes from Bolton Abbey in the olden time, chased after the paintings, "The Weighing of the Game" and "The Return from Hawking" was in great favor. Four twelve-light candelabra, modeled by Marshal of London, which required weeks in the chasing, and were remarkably fine examples of acanthus work, were favorably noticed by Mr. Ruskin. Much time was now given to the making of drawings and sketches required in correspondence, and of working patterns. The Ruskin Museum was an active factor in the life of these days, the superior collection of Albert Durer's engravings, which it contained, furnishing many a suggestion for the treatment of work.
Nine years were spent here under the pleasantest associations, during the latter part of which frequent advertisements in the home papers, by manufacturers in the States, who were seemingly always in need of more men than home labor could supply, began to impress him. Reports from those already in the country were so favorable as to make the necessary change alluring to a young man ambitious to acquire a sufficient competence to ensure comfortable security in later years. Just before leaving the country he attended a meeting of Craftsmen at the old King's Head Tavern, which resulted in the formation of the Sheffield Society of Arts and Crafts, which now has a well established standing, and gives successful exhibitions of the work of its members. It was in the fall of the year when he crossed in the old Marathon, hopeful, vigorous, and ready to test the reality of new-world optimism. Soon after his arrival he came upon a little New England lake in all the splendid glory of its autumnal color. It was a never-to-be-forgotten sight in the peaceful blue of a rich September day, and the embodiment of some pen picture out of Cooper's tales, which had caught and held the memory.
In strange surroundings, under strange conditions, his first months seemed comparatively unfruitful, but he was permitted to realize in full measure the dreams of his allurement, and after years of successful effort, at length found himself in a position to gratify a long cherished fancy, to work without stress in a little shop of his own, where one might dwell upon the shaping of a thought, with the question of the greatest possible return in a given minimum of time no longer paramount. Obstacles become numerous in the realization of such dreams, for in the making of silver, the hammerer, spinner, caster, die-sinker, stamper, chaser, engraver, finisher, and in these days the colorer, are each trades to themselves. In the limited output of a single workman, not all are called for, but hammering, mounting, ornamentation and finish belong to the simplest efforts, and must be mastered before satisfactory results may be looked for. Little shops have an established footing in the old country, and it was always "over there," that the dream shop had its setting. Till, as the years went by, and each return to the mother land marked more fully the ever increasing separation from the old life, and the silent absorption into the feeling of the new, a transformation was at last accomplished. Shadow became substance, but in a new-world atmosphere, where it awaits the evolution of years before it, too, becomes embodied in a foot-path leading — but who can tell ? —
Source: Handicraft - November 1902
Trev.
By Mrs. Arthur J. Stone
Is it that the perfection of mechanical ingenuity, endlessly repeating its given form, induces in us a weariness of surfeit, knowing as we do that the relentless and intricate machinery, which fashioned some highly wrought factor of our own home furnishing, still whirs its ever increasing duplicates into countless other homes? Is it that through greater numbers and more abundant means a natural separation is resulting, and that the culture of the mind whose habit is formed to the love of the pure in music, and the noble expression of the soul in art and literature, is demanding for itself an environment of intimate surroundings which shall be in harmony with the less tangible life which is within?
The comparative newness of the term Craftsman applied to American conditions, leaves its work to some extent a prey to volatile enthusiasms and uncertainties. Along certain lines its efforts must of necessity be experimental. Trusts and combinations, the great live issues which largely constitute to-day's industrial problem, expanding and absorbing till the mind grows dulled in its effort to comprehend the measure of their magnitude, seem scarcely to leave so much as a crevice where the aspiration of the craftsman may lodge long enough to take root. Every energy of the manufacturing world is strained, even to the uttermost, in a universal, maddening effort to reduce luxury to its lowest terms. The upholstered chair, the silver spoon must be put within the reach of all men, even though the fabric is so cheapened as to become shabby directly under wear, and the weight of the spoon is scaled down to the minimum, while utility in both cases is lost to sight in the elaboration of meaningless ornament.
Against this chaos of hurried, unsound workmanship, overloaded with ornament, whose purpose none the less among us than in those days when Shakespeare noted it, is still to deceive the eye, diverting it from truer and more lasting merit, the voice of the craftsman pleads for a proper balance of durability, utility, fitness of purpose and harmony in ornament. He can but know that the masses will pass on unheeding, perhaps never knowing that the voice was there, but he looks to find, somewhere in the throng, others who have wished for yet sought in vain the things which he has found missing. It is not alone the purpose to arouse a sentiment for the recognition of truer merit that impels him to action. The vast system of machine-made laws, which govern the manufactures of to-day, limits and holds him in his work, to a narrow scope that is little better than that of the machine itself. These demand skilled labor and alert intelligence, but the necessities of production require it to be concentrated in a single direction, specialized. He may hammer for all his working years, forever shaping his alloted silver, without any distinct notion of the processes which have resulted in the flat piece from which he builds, or of the steps required to produce the smooth, polished surface of the finish. If. he becomes restive under the sameness of constant repetition, the best he can hope for is in the variation of characteristic styles, which he may find through change to some other shop. The scope of his individuality is diminished, until he loses sight of it altogether in the mechanical routine to which he is bound. Fettered though he is, courage is necessary if he would break away. Individuality is overwhelmed in multiplicity, and must yet depend upon recognition. Should he possess skill to fashion his work from beginning to finish the time consumed in each process must of necessity exceed that of the workman whose every day repeats that of the one just past, and who nevertheless is in a measure bound to be his competitor. He can only dare through love, setting aside much that the world rates high, and trusting that somewhere in a shadowy future he may at least find footing. A Cellini or John de Bologna might to-day tread fearlessly among us, but somewhere below the pinnacles the ground takes on uncertainty.
In a brotherhood of craftsmen, drawn together and united by common ideals and purposes, the pathways which lead to a general meeting-ground are many and varied; and a long-trodden and familiar way, to well acquainted eyes seemingly unmarked by special feature, may to those more strange present many an interesting turn. Along one of these it is the purpose of this sketch to follow. Its subject was born something like half a century ago in that begrimed and dingy city, which, despite man's best efforts to render it unlovely, is yet so rich in the natural charms of its environment as to offer defiance to his disregard. The seed of the craftsman finds here soil favorable to development. The skill of his forbears fashioned the " Sheffield thwytle" which Chaucer's pilgrim carried tucked in his hose, and out from those far-off years he has been steadily moving toward us, a resistless army, mostly lost in the rank and file, but occasionally, as with Chantry, Godfrey Sykes, or Stevens rising to single eminence.
Ruskin knew his sturdy merit, and singling out a favorite beauty spot on the suburban hills, bought and endowed a museum which should be for his advancement. Its purpose was one with St. George's Guild, a society established by him in London, and one or two other industrial centres, to give opportunity to artistic workmen. It was a movement ideal in its conception, but never obtained a strong, decisive hold. The museum, small but selected by Ruskin with the utmost care, was removed after some years to a less beautiful but more attainable location, where it is now maintained by the municipality with reverential pride.
The city is oftenest heard of through its iron and steel industries, the famous Cutlers' Guild, founded in the sixteenth century, having figured in many a historical event; but it also holds an eminent place in the manufacture of silver, most notable, perhaps, from being the home of the older, now unused form of silver plating on copper.
Jealously and as a sacred trust the craftsman has guarded the secrets of his work, believing that with him rested the output and value of his labor. He has fought with undaunted valor the invasion of his cherished rights, and adjusted himself reluctantly to inevitable defeat. In desperation he bound himself in Trades Unions, and not even murder withheld him from his purpose to withstand the encroachment of advance. Within thirty years he has decreed, that in a stated number of hours, a given number of men will accomplish a limited production, which must maintain the standard wage he had established; only to find his hold lost and his business gone. Only by inches will he yield his ground, and he listens with scornful incredulity to the warnings of the farsighted in his clan, which of late years have been sounded with increasing frequency. After all, his contention is not so far removed from our own, for the standard of his material, and the time he insists on, give to his work a lasting merit, the lack of which we constantly deplore in our up-to-date lightning processes. English silver acquires an added interest from the careful marking under government supervision which fixes its date and sterling quality. Not long ago a traveler became covetous of a certain pair of fine sugar nippers, of a style no longer used, belonging to a friend, and searching among many antique shops finally found an inferior pair which were purchased. No particular attention was given to the date letter, the purchaser assuming that they were of a period some fifty years back. It was therefore in the nature of a surprise to find, some time later, when the inspiration came to look it up, that they were made in the year of the purchase, and left with a dull, worn-looking finish to catch the unwary. The standard of silver, which is also our own, has remained practically unchanged for five hundred years. Two hundred years ago it was raised for about twenty-five years, but the test of wear proved it too soft to be durable. This silver has the figure of Britannia stamped upon it, and is known to the trade as Queen Anne silver. Its standard is still lawful, but seldom called for. With the date and sterling mark of all English silver is also the mark of the office at which it is assayed, and the registered mark of the maker, or the shop from which it is sold. There are now seven offices where silver may be assayed, some of the older ones, like York and Exeter, having been discontinued. London is the oldest among them, its leopard's head being so highly esteemed that it is not unusual for manufacturers in the other cities to send their work there for its marks. At the Goldsmith's Hall in London, date letters are preserved from the time of Queen Elizabeth; Edinburgh has date letters from the seventeenth century, and Dublin from somewhat later: but for the most part the lists begin close upon the date of our independence, that of Sheffield starting in 1773. It has been recently reported that American manufacturers are sending over parts to get the stamp of the English assay. Such cases are provided for by a fifth mark, F, added to those already mentioned. The Ecclesiastical plate of the old churches is often of great interest, and pieces of the latter half of the seventeenth century are not uncommon. The most valuable private collection seldom contains a piece prior to the eighteenth century. Early in the nineteenth century there was developed in Sheffield a new method of fusing a thin piece of silver upon copper or brass which was christened with the name of the city. Attaching silver to baser metal by means of solder had been known from remote times. The gay caparisons of horse and rider in the tournaments made a demand for work of this sort, and Otley, a little town to the north of Sheffield, was long a center of its trade. It is related that as the call of such trappings went out, its craftsmen drifted toward Sheffield, and it is not unlikely that through their knowledge and skill the copper plating was perfected.
It was at once recognized and copied by the French, who had hitherto known only the joining by means of solder, and was used for fifty years or more, when the modern process of electro-plating superseded it. For a time after the discovery of the latter method, following a common law, the old plate was discredited, and many a fine piece suffered in careless hands. To-day collectors place a choice piece of Sheffield plate side by side with sterling silver. In the older process, after the fusion of the metals, the piece was rolled until just a coating of silver was spread over its entire surface, when it was ready for shaping. The mounts were stamped in the thinnest silver, the work of a stamper requiring particular skill. These thin stampings were filled with soft solder, and sweated on to the body by gentle heat. An old joke of the trade was to the effect that stampings could not be allowed near an open window lest they be blown away. The unsophisticated of to-day are often dismayed, after a vigorous polishing, to see the ugly black of the solder appearing in the mount, or the less objectionable copper shimmering through the silver body. The fortunate possessor of a fine bit of copper plate learns to be very tender with it. Oftentimes the beauty of its form and the richness of its mount rival the solid plate. A heavy, elaborate mount, and, in the trays and snuffer trays, highly ornate flat chasing belong to its period. In the simpler mounts, the egg and dart and gadroon are often exceptionally fine. And again we have seen in the hands of private collectors pieces wholly devoid of ornament save for the fluting, and so chaste in form as easily to pass for sterling, were it not for the absence of the valued hall marks.
In the past ten or twelve years it has become increasingly difficult to obtain genuinely fine specimens, particularly of the smaller pieces. Kensington has made a choice collection, and the Sheffield Museum, alive to its connection with the industries of its city, has an authorized agent watching any opportunity to add to its number of beautiful pieces. The great wine coolers of the period, having outgrown their original use, are occasionally seen in the fine hotels, adorning the dining table. Being urn shape, with handles, they form most ideal fern pots.
It was following the decadence of copper plating that our little lad had forced upon him that most serious question of making a way in the world. The death of the father, after a long and weary illness, which exhausted the little surplus that had been accumulated, left the brother and sister with practically no resources other than the love of a good mother. Schoolroom doors closed behind him at the age of eleven. England, not quite ready even yet to grant freely and liberally the education of her children, left the matter in those days entirely to the discretion of her church which, secure from molestation, went indifferently about it. On what merit her teachers were chosen is not evident, but it is certain that in the boys' schools, tyranny of rod and deep intimacy with the bottom of the ale mug did not disqualify. Dingy and cold, comfortless and cheerless, with its one little grate fire, and its hundred and more boys, the schoolroom lingers in the memory, far enough removed from the finely equipped buildings and trained teachers of which the city proudly boasts to-day. Somehow in that brief period, despite the anxious eye which followed the mood of the master, the great foundation rudiments were gathered and absorbed.
Then followed several years in which such work as a little lad may do, by way of errand boy, and other service sometimes heavy for small hands, went to help out the over-burdened mother, until having reached the age of fourteen it was settled that he should follow a trade of the family and become a silversmith.
Disheartening enough must have been the mother's experience in her first effort to find a master for the would-be apprentice, for she was told that he would only accept one on payment of a premium of twenty pounds. Further effort resulted in better fortune, and a certain blue document drawn up in legal form on the fourteenth birthday, remains to tell the conditions of her contract.
Stamped for the city and the revenue of two shillings six pence, and beginning in heavy black old English type, " This indenture made the . . . day of ... in the . . . year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady Victoria," it sets forth the contract of mother and son on the one side, and master on the other, for a period of seven years. It requires that the son enter upon the contract of his own free-will, and with his mother's consent; and during all this time the son agrees to "serve his said master faithfully, keep his secrets, observe his lawful commands, forbear to do him hurt, or injury, either in his person or property, attend regularly and diligently to his affairs and interest, account honestly for all money, goods, and effects which shall be committed to his . . . charge, and deliver up the same as and when required so to do, and in every respect conduct himself as an industrious and trustworthy apprentice." The master agrees for "himself his executors, administrators and assigns " that he will teach or cause to be taught the trade or business of designer, modeler and chaser. Then the wages follow: for the first two years the mother shall receive three shillings a week, for two years more five shillings a week, for the next two years eight shillings a week, and for the year remaining ten shillings a week. The mother then binds herself to find and provide her son with " wholesome and sufficient meat, drink, lodging, wearing apparel, medical and surgical aid, and all other necessaries suitable for his trade and employment." Brave mother, to promise so much on so small a stipend. This completes the indenture, which is signed, sealed and witnessed by the three, and all being happily arranged, it is the master's part to give his lad a " fastening penny" in the shape of half a crown.
An apprentice could not be lawfully bound under the age of fourteen, and being so bound, not even for the army could he break his indenture without mutual consent duly witnessed. Such a system would seem to suggest that there are things outside of Heaven that are not reached at a single bound, and the slow mounting of the ladder infers things irksome and little to the taste in our day and time. It is undoubtedly true that no long drawn out apprenticeship will ensure skill unless the temperament of the workman holds some note responsive to his work. Equally so genius untamed by the tools of its craft, scatters itself as waste material. The youngest apprentice is not without initiatory duties. He must settle his status with the big boys, oftentimes by a vigorous use of his fists. He must sweep and keep tidy the smudgy little shop, run errands for his master, hold work for him with careful attention, and at half-past four in the afternoon he must attend to the mashing of the tea, which each associate has brought from home, ready for the boiling water, wrapped in a bit of paper, with sugar, and a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to bring out its full strength. Half an hour is given to this national repast, then work goes on again until seven. In large centers like Sheffield there are established National Schools of Design, offshoots of the noble parent at South Kensington, and partly endowed by the government. To this school our apprentice, who would learn design, was expected to go for three nights in a week, after his day's work was done. A course in geometrical drawing was first required, followed by freehand. These schools, then in their youth, have been a steadily increasing power in developing the understanding of art principles among the people, and the present-day curriculum is much enlarged. A small tuition is asked, and deficits have been liberally subscribed by the manufacturers, who realize great benefit from them. The apprenticeship required fifty-nine hours a week, and to pay even a small tuition our lad must work overtime for the nights remaining, except on Saturday, when he was free from five o'clock. It is not strange that instruction, attended by such excessive demand, should have been curtailed to strict necessity. Designing and modeling were not definitely taught him during any period of his apprenticeship. If he were apt he might gain a knowledge which would lead to their development in later years, if not he would become, through practice, a skilful chaser, following a prescribed pattern, for he was held during the whole time strictly to chasing and fluting. Weeks were given to acquiring command of the small tools used in this work, and to the making and tempering of them. The old chaser gradually acquires a standing army of hundreds of these little punches, wholly bewildering to the uninitiated, but among which he chooses with deft certainty according to his needs. The making of the pitch which is to hold the work, the methods of laying out and putting on the pattern, are all parts of his trade. Large, plated center and dessert pieces, with glass holders for fruit and flowers, were in vogue in these first years. They were often incongruous in design, sometimes with grapes and vines ornamenting the standard, and perhaps two cast deer on the base underneath. The grapes were cast in bunches, the leaves separately, and all were joined by means of solder. Having gained some command of his tools, one of the first tasks was the chasing of many and many a hundred of the grapes. The leaves were elaborately done with minute veining both front and back, but they belonged to days of more experience. Repetition was the order of the times, and the Greek key, and two scrolls with shell became chased indelibly into the memory.
In the making of any given piece of hollow ware, such as a tea pot, the designer will make from his drawing a half-section of its parts in clay. The body being hammered, or by the quicker method spun, serves simply to model the parts proportionately, or it may be to show the relief of the ornament. From the handle and spout a plaster cast is taken, which having been removed from the model is carefully lined with clay to the required thickness of the silver, and a second plaster is poured over it. The two plasters being separated, and the thin clay removed, there remains upon fitting them together again, a hollow space which represents the desired part. Into this hollow, hot wax is poured and, the plasters being once more separated, a wax model is obtained, from which may be cast a more durable fac-simile in brass. The brass model is turned over to the chaser, who exercises the utmost care to work out every imperfection, and to leave no part so undercut as to interfere with the drawing off of the final silver casting. It is only as the apprenticeship nears its close that important work of this kind is undertaken.
Rapid growth and close application (for beside the hours required, many another of overtime went to secure some coveted desire) told upon the physical strength of the boy, without defeating his steadfast will to acquire the best. For somehow in this period, by means of the little Clementi piano in the home, he managed to acquire an appreciative knowledge of the great masters, as well as to become familiar with the noted writings of the day. It must have been the saving grace of the holidays, so dear to the English heart, that brought him at last to the strength of manhood. Upon the arrival of each long-anticipated day, provided with umbrella and knapsack, he left behind the gas and smoke of daily life, tramping unnumbered miles over moor and dale, till all the country round about was friendly and familiar; acquiring in his maturer years an endurance that made long distances a delight, and took him afoot over great portions of his native shire. The holidays begun with Shrove Tuesday, when the master was in duty bound to give his lad fourteen pence. Church must not be omitted on that day. Easter was a long holiday, beginning with Good Friday and lasting over Easter Monday and Tuesday. Whitsuntide found the hawthorn whitening the hedge-rows, the blackbirds and thrushes lilting in the soft new green of the trees, the lark rising high over the field-roads, and the cuckoos answering across the woodlands.
But Christmas was the great time of the year, and coming as it did in the busy season, the overtime system was carried to its greatest lengths. For two or three weeks before its arrival work was kept up until midnight, often at the last until later yet. On the last work morning, the morning before Christmas, the boys and girls gathered in the hall of the salesroom, singing Christmas hymns together before ending the year's work and beginning a week of great festivity.
The close of the seven years was made a matter of celebration among the men. Its beginning, as we have said, was marked with the fastening penny, and by quite a natural sequence the end was known as the losing. In the morning of the last day, all over the shop, the boys suspended the stakes used in shaping the silver, and at intervals the youngest apprentice would beat upon them with a wooden mallet, the others joining in. The old-time stake was made of steel, so the result was a merry, musical, chime-like jangle.
The afternoon was made a holiday with a feast at some little inn outside the town, and as it drew to a close the lad just coming into his majority was chaired or crowned, by being placed in a chair upon the table, while the two apprentices next oldest held a brimming punch bowl over his head, and the others about him chanted some jingling doggerel whose burden was,
"Here's to he who is now set free,
That once was a 'prentice lad."
Then the indentures, which up to this time had been in the keeping of the lawyer, were given over to him, and with their possession he passed out of bondage.
It would seem as if in the apprenticeship system the conditions greatly favored the master. It was not usual for him to have but one apprentice at a time; quite often the father passed his trade in this way to his son. The larger firms taxed a master two shillings a week for his apprentice. A bright boy soon earned the wage paid him, and long before he was out of his time was a source of profit to his master. His instruction seems generally to have been based upon what he could earn, rather than upon consideration of what would be for his best development. With freedom came the real test of the workman, in the more extended opportunities open to him, where he might confine himself to some special line of work embraced in his trade, or broaden and enlarge in all directions upon what he had acquired.
Soon after the losing our craftsman became restive, and drawn by the historic beauty of Edinburgh, applied quite hap-hazard for work in one of its shops. He had the luck to find them in need of help, and in about three months after the close of his apprenticeship was earning thirty-five shillings a week, a very satisfactory wage for the time. It need hardly be mentioned that the good mother, at home with her daughter, now found her burdens lightened. Here was a true little handicraft shop, close upon Princes Street, employing about twenty men, where the silver was melted and rolled, and the work hammered and cast. The power was furnished by a wooden wheel some ten feet in diameter, reaching from floor to ceiling, which was turned by a powerful half-witted fellow of whom the others were wont to say " Wully has a want." It was kept in work by one of the two largest Princes Street shops, and fine things went out from it, from the various small trappings that adorn the Scotch regalia, to rich and heavy hollow ware.
Our craftsman was entrusted with the chasing of two vases with tops, standing eighteen inches, each of which employed him for three months in the doing, and it was here that he was first actively engaged in design. During his stay the fine old silver plate of the house of Bute, consisting of hundreds of plates and trays, was brought down to be renovated and put in order in honor of the coming of age of the young Marquis.
At the hour of afternoon tea, the apprentices would get together for merry contests over their hornpipes, one of their number whistling on and on, with never a final cadence, after the endless fashion of the true Scotch jig.
There was no lack of incentive for the much loved tramps, and Sundays and holidays found him afield, among the crags of Arthur's Seat, studying the lavish art of Rosslyn Chapel, or enjoying the restful peace of Melrose or the district about Abbotsford. Most fortunate in having for a room-mate a young native of Ayr, who was a devotee of Burns, he joined in his enthusiasm, and together they acquired many of his finer poems, as they sat by their " ingle bleezing brightly," and toasted and munched the oatcakes which the Scotch mother sent them. A year passed quickly and pleasantly, at the end of which he was able to make a change for the better, and returned to his home to a shop not larger than the one he was leaving, but progressive in its arrangements and appliances. After the freedom of the year just passed the sharper lines of subdivision in the work were most noticeable. The hammerer was no longer a mounter, and the flat chaser was distinct from the worker in repousse. Indeed, flat chasing was in decline, and the skilled workmen who wrought the beautiful flowing lines of delicate scrolls to be seen on fine examples of its period were nearly of the past.
Our craftsman now found himself able to take up a further study of design, under private instruction of one of the masters of the school, until he was confronted with a most troublesome difficulty through failure of his eyes from too close application. For weeks he faced the threatened undoing of his craft, but absolute rest, prescribed by a noted London specialist, averted the danger, imposing a more cautious future.
In three years more, change was again made to one of the larger firms. The silver of this period was marked by beautiful fluting, which is in the department of the chaser. It was also a time when the bodies of sets were covered all over with repousse, even to the bottoms. The signs of the zodiac done in twelve little panels had great popularity, and a set with scenes from Bolton Abbey in the olden time, chased after the paintings, "The Weighing of the Game" and "The Return from Hawking" was in great favor. Four twelve-light candelabra, modeled by Marshal of London, which required weeks in the chasing, and were remarkably fine examples of acanthus work, were favorably noticed by Mr. Ruskin. Much time was now given to the making of drawings and sketches required in correspondence, and of working patterns. The Ruskin Museum was an active factor in the life of these days, the superior collection of Albert Durer's engravings, which it contained, furnishing many a suggestion for the treatment of work.
Nine years were spent here under the pleasantest associations, during the latter part of which frequent advertisements in the home papers, by manufacturers in the States, who were seemingly always in need of more men than home labor could supply, began to impress him. Reports from those already in the country were so favorable as to make the necessary change alluring to a young man ambitious to acquire a sufficient competence to ensure comfortable security in later years. Just before leaving the country he attended a meeting of Craftsmen at the old King's Head Tavern, which resulted in the formation of the Sheffield Society of Arts and Crafts, which now has a well established standing, and gives successful exhibitions of the work of its members. It was in the fall of the year when he crossed in the old Marathon, hopeful, vigorous, and ready to test the reality of new-world optimism. Soon after his arrival he came upon a little New England lake in all the splendid glory of its autumnal color. It was a never-to-be-forgotten sight in the peaceful blue of a rich September day, and the embodiment of some pen picture out of Cooper's tales, which had caught and held the memory.
In strange surroundings, under strange conditions, his first months seemed comparatively unfruitful, but he was permitted to realize in full measure the dreams of his allurement, and after years of successful effort, at length found himself in a position to gratify a long cherished fancy, to work without stress in a little shop of his own, where one might dwell upon the shaping of a thought, with the question of the greatest possible return in a given minimum of time no longer paramount. Obstacles become numerous in the realization of such dreams, for in the making of silver, the hammerer, spinner, caster, die-sinker, stamper, chaser, engraver, finisher, and in these days the colorer, are each trades to themselves. In the limited output of a single workman, not all are called for, but hammering, mounting, ornamentation and finish belong to the simplest efforts, and must be mastered before satisfactory results may be looked for. Little shops have an established footing in the old country, and it was always "over there," that the dream shop had its setting. Till, as the years went by, and each return to the mother land marked more fully the ever increasing separation from the old life, and the silent absorption into the feeling of the new, a transformation was at last accomplished. Shadow became substance, but in a new-world atmosphere, where it awaits the evolution of years before it, too, becomes embodied in a foot-path leading — but who can tell ? —
Source: Handicraft - November 1902
Trev.
Re: Arthur J. Stone - Further Information
DEATHS
Arthur J. Stone, 90, Noted Silversmith
Gardner, Mass., Feb. 7 (UP) - Arthur John Stone, 90, internationally-known silversmith who completed work began by Paul Revere, died last night.
Identified with handwrought art and crafts movement since 1901, he designed the communion plate and altar cross for the Church of St. James, Chicago.
Exhibited With Brooklynite
Arthur Stone was one on the best craftsmen in the country. Peer Smed, Brookyn silversmith who frequently had exhibited with the New England man, said today. They last exhibited their handwrought silver pieces together in the Montclair Museum. Mr. Smed had expected that Mr. Stone would be represented with him at the recent Brooklyn Museum exhibition of handmade silver, but the illness of the New England craftsman prevented his sending any of his work here.
"Arthur Stone's work was typically American, representing the best Colonial traditions of that master silversmith, Paul Revere." Mr. Smed said of his colleague in the fast disappearing line.
Source: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle - 7th February 1938
Trev.
Arthur J. Stone, 90, Noted Silversmith
Gardner, Mass., Feb. 7 (UP) - Arthur John Stone, 90, internationally-known silversmith who completed work began by Paul Revere, died last night.
Identified with handwrought art and crafts movement since 1901, he designed the communion plate and altar cross for the Church of St. James, Chicago.
Exhibited With Brooklynite
Arthur Stone was one on the best craftsmen in the country. Peer Smed, Brookyn silversmith who frequently had exhibited with the New England man, said today. They last exhibited their handwrought silver pieces together in the Montclair Museum. Mr. Smed had expected that Mr. Stone would be represented with him at the recent Brooklyn Museum exhibition of handmade silver, but the illness of the New England craftsman prevented his sending any of his work here.
"Arthur Stone's work was typically American, representing the best Colonial traditions of that master silversmith, Paul Revere." Mr. Smed said of his colleague in the fast disappearing line.
Source: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle - 7th February 1938
Trev.
Re: Arthur J. Stone - Further Information
THE SOCIETY OF ARTS AND CRAFTS IN DETROIT
A very fine exhibition of the work of Mr. Arthur Stone ended on March 5. The gem of the collection was a tall silver vase decorated with a rich design in gold inlay, a very beautiful piece of work. There were also a cream jug and sugar bowl, decorated with a charming design chased around the edges; a number of bowls, plain and decorated; a pair of very ornamental asparagus tongs and a fine exhibit of flat ware. This exhibit attracted a great deal of attention, and shared with the book-plate exhibition in the very general interest which the public takes in the Society at this time.
Source: Handicraft - April 1911
Trev.
A very fine exhibition of the work of Mr. Arthur Stone ended on March 5. The gem of the collection was a tall silver vase decorated with a rich design in gold inlay, a very beautiful piece of work. There were also a cream jug and sugar bowl, decorated with a charming design chased around the edges; a number of bowls, plain and decorated; a pair of very ornamental asparagus tongs and a fine exhibit of flat ware. This exhibit attracted a great deal of attention, and shared with the book-plate exhibition in the very general interest which the public takes in the Society at this time.
Source: Handicraft - April 1911
Trev.
Re: Arthur J. Stone - Further Information
A segment of an article entitled 'American Craftsmen' by Hazel H. Adler, that was published in 'The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine' in 1916:
..... Journeying eastward over the gently sloping Connecticut valley to high and hilly Gardner, we come to the workshop adjoining the home of Mr. Arthur Stone, master silversmith. Standing in the little office, we catch a glimpse through the open doorway of a large, pleasant room in which the master is seated at the same work-bench with his men, each absorbed in his own occupation. The men are beating with small-headed hammers small bars of silver destined to become spoons and forks and the graceful handles of pitchers. The master is tinkering with small, fine-pointed instruments at some triangular pieces, the corners of an elaborate book. Now the master selects from the rack a particular wooden mallet and, placing a dull disk of silver on the anvil, with clear, true, ringing strokes proceeds to raise it before our marveling eyes into the shape of a bowl. Beating it until it is no longer malleable, he plunges it into a bath of fire, and then revolves and beats again, while it gradually assumes proportions of geometrical exactitude, consistent thickness, and with strength where strength is needed, in the firm, even edge. It may be that our intelligent appreciation has been intensified by a knowledge of the processes involved, or that there is something in even the humblest of us which responds unconsciously to that magic touch which the master hand imparts to inanimate matter, but as piece after piece of the finished work is tenderly unwrapped and laid in our hands, we know that we can never again feel the same about silver, and that all the shining, flawless pieces in the silver-shop windows fade before the beauty and distinction of these pieces, where every part is wrought by cherishing fingers and the beaten surface wonderfully catches and holds the light. Now and then we catch a glimpse of some of the pieces of the very remarkable silver service which Mrs. E. H. Sothern is having made for a gift to her husband and a great lasting tribute to the art of two masters, the maker and the one for whose use it is designed. Many happy months have already been lavished on the making, with the prospect of years before the whole work will be done, but it is one of those accomplishments which will probably go down in history to the glorification of our age and land.
Trev.
..... Journeying eastward over the gently sloping Connecticut valley to high and hilly Gardner, we come to the workshop adjoining the home of Mr. Arthur Stone, master silversmith. Standing in the little office, we catch a glimpse through the open doorway of a large, pleasant room in which the master is seated at the same work-bench with his men, each absorbed in his own occupation. The men are beating with small-headed hammers small bars of silver destined to become spoons and forks and the graceful handles of pitchers. The master is tinkering with small, fine-pointed instruments at some triangular pieces, the corners of an elaborate book. Now the master selects from the rack a particular wooden mallet and, placing a dull disk of silver on the anvil, with clear, true, ringing strokes proceeds to raise it before our marveling eyes into the shape of a bowl. Beating it until it is no longer malleable, he plunges it into a bath of fire, and then revolves and beats again, while it gradually assumes proportions of geometrical exactitude, consistent thickness, and with strength where strength is needed, in the firm, even edge. It may be that our intelligent appreciation has been intensified by a knowledge of the processes involved, or that there is something in even the humblest of us which responds unconsciously to that magic touch which the master hand imparts to inanimate matter, but as piece after piece of the finished work is tenderly unwrapped and laid in our hands, we know that we can never again feel the same about silver, and that all the shining, flawless pieces in the silver-shop windows fade before the beauty and distinction of these pieces, where every part is wrought by cherishing fingers and the beaten surface wonderfully catches and holds the light. Now and then we catch a glimpse of some of the pieces of the very remarkable silver service which Mrs. E. H. Sothern is having made for a gift to her husband and a great lasting tribute to the art of two masters, the maker and the one for whose use it is designed. Many happy months have already been lavished on the making, with the prospect of years before the whole work will be done, but it is one of those accomplishments which will probably go down in history to the glorification of our age and land.
Trev.
Re: Arthur J. Stone - Further Information
Link to the Arthur J. Stone workshop/Stone Silver Shop/Stone Associates records, 1824-1958 held at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution:
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/arth ... cords-5936
Records documenting silversmith production by Arthur J. Stone, his workshop, and Stone Associates.
Included are ca. 11,000 drawings, including bench drawings, designer's master drawings, architect's drawings, and ca. 1,000 "scales" or templates, made from full scale drawings; files from Stone's workshop containing an index to photographs, information on clients, and work summaries including dimensions, name, craftsmen's initials, hours, weight, and price; stock number cards, circle and gauge cards, and daily hours cards; files for Stone Associates containing work summary and stock cards.
Also found are photographs of Stone, his workshop, and silver pieces, (mainly taken by his wife, Elizabeth Bent Stone, 1912-1937), and objects made by Stone Associates; photograph albums of duplicate prints; clippings, 5 exhibition catalogs, and brochures; 17 letters; 2 essays on silverware by Jerome A. Heywood; records on stock number card categories; lists of silver gauges, weights, and circles; ten sections of plaster casts of chased silver forms by Arthur J.Stone; and a trade catalog of James Dixon and Son, Sheffield, England, undated. A microfiche of a card file is included with the records.
Records from the Arthur J. Stone workshop, including measured drawings; templates; albums of photographs of work, including commissions for leading Episcopal churches and churchmen, Yale and Harvard Universities, private patrons in Boston and N.Y., and for Stone's leading client, George Booth of Cranbrook, Michigan; photographs of an exhibition, and of Stone, his workmen, and his shop. Also included are Stone's copies of a few English silver and metalwork trade catalogs, ca. 1824-ca. 1937.
Trev.
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/arth ... cords-5936
Records documenting silversmith production by Arthur J. Stone, his workshop, and Stone Associates.
Included are ca. 11,000 drawings, including bench drawings, designer's master drawings, architect's drawings, and ca. 1,000 "scales" or templates, made from full scale drawings; files from Stone's workshop containing an index to photographs, information on clients, and work summaries including dimensions, name, craftsmen's initials, hours, weight, and price; stock number cards, circle and gauge cards, and daily hours cards; files for Stone Associates containing work summary and stock cards.
Also found are photographs of Stone, his workshop, and silver pieces, (mainly taken by his wife, Elizabeth Bent Stone, 1912-1937), and objects made by Stone Associates; photograph albums of duplicate prints; clippings, 5 exhibition catalogs, and brochures; 17 letters; 2 essays on silverware by Jerome A. Heywood; records on stock number card categories; lists of silver gauges, weights, and circles; ten sections of plaster casts of chased silver forms by Arthur J.Stone; and a trade catalog of James Dixon and Son, Sheffield, England, undated. A microfiche of a card file is included with the records.
Records from the Arthur J. Stone workshop, including measured drawings; templates; albums of photographs of work, including commissions for leading Episcopal churches and churchmen, Yale and Harvard Universities, private patrons in Boston and N.Y., and for Stone's leading client, George Booth of Cranbrook, Michigan; photographs of an exhibition, and of Stone, his workmen, and his shop. Also included are Stone's copies of a few English silver and metalwork trade catalogs, ca. 1824-ca. 1937.
Trev.