Customer Reviews

Contemporary Silver: Commissioning, Designing, Collecting

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Looking for a book on contemporary silver?

If you go to the Web and enter "contemporary silver" in a search engine, what comes up? Not much, right? Go into Amazon.com and look there as well. You'll find just one book: Contemporary Silver: Commissioning, Designing, Creating. Sure, you'll find a few out-of-print books published in Europe, but who has the time to brush up on their German? The authors of Contemporary Silver are Benton Seymour Rabinovitch and Helen Clifford, Ph.D. Rabinovitch is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle, a member of the Silver Society (London), and Honorary Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. He is a longtime collector of antique silver and serving pieces and is the author of Antique Silver Servers for the Dining Table. Clifford has a number of degrees, is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, member of the Silver Society (London), and an honorary member of the Association of British Designer-Silversmiths. She has written and curated exhibitions on historical and contemporary silver.

The two authors have produced a book that is both beautiful and inspiring. Rabinovitch commissioned 62 notable silversmiths from the United States and Great Britain to design and create silver serving pieces in fish-server or cake-slice form. The result is an incredible range of servers in every conceivable technique. From the minimalist to the baroque, from the abstract to the representational, all are meant for practical use, though cleaning some of the more intricate pieces would certainly be a challenge.

These servers demonstrate mastery of the craft, and offer a comparative survey in technique and design between the two countries.

Each of the 62 pieces illustrated (75 have been commissioned to date) has a full description, including materials used, dimensions, and narrative, an artist's philosophy/statement, and brief personal history. Rabinovitch also comments on how he chose each silversmith for the commission.

Within the 160 pages lie chapters on the commissioning process; historical background on servers in the 18th and 19th centuries; silver design in Britain and the U.S. between 1950 and 2000; understanding the collection; the collection itself; and a helpful glossary of terms.

Buy this book!

While there is a strong market today for antique silver, it is taken as given that the everyday use of table silverware is fully out of fashion. In magazine layouts one regularly sees antique English sterling pieces, and American coin silver, and continental silverwares, but it can be hard to sell many pieces for more than the melt value of the metal. Collectors go to great lengths to obtain, identify, and appreciate the fine works of earlier generations of silversmiths, which typically then sit in vaults or showcases.

Nevertheless, there are almost certainly thousands of active silversmiths working in the world today. Some produce work in classical styles (whether European or otherwise, like the Indonesian traditions), others more modern, and some make objects that can only be considered as works of art. Some of this work can be purchased for no more than antique pieces of the same quality, some much more - like all art markets there are "stars" whose work can bring a large premium, and some can even be relative bargains.

This excellent book documents a project of commissioning pieces from contemporary silversmiths, either a fish-slice or a cake-server. The resulting pieces range from fairly traditional and even utilitarian designs to soaring flights of fancy that can hardly be imagined in use. It discusses the contemporary silver markets, how to make a commission, and each piece gets spectacular photographic coverage as well as its story told in text.

I wasn't sure when I ordered this if it would be worth the cost. Well, it is - and then some. It's not a huge book, but it is a good size and makes full use of the available space. The pieces are beautiful and often fascinating. I hope that others who can afford to do so are inspired to make their own projects commissioning pieces from contemporary smiths - and produce similarly nice books for those of us who can't afford to do so on such a grand scale!

Fine metalwork is something to admire. The photos in this book are spectacular, the closeups much appreciated. And reading about the commissioning process was interesting. As a newbie, wannabe, metalsmith every detail was inspiring or instructional and continues to be on rereading.

This is a gorgeous book that will delight and inspire. The photos are very beautiful and show the details clearly. The book covers lots of different silver jewellers/artists and their work. I highly recommend it.