Follow the City's Silver Trail

Buried Treasure: Silver in the City is a new guided walk discovering the City's links to the story of silver from the Romans to the 20th century. The new Walk has been sponsored by the London Silver Vaults as part of the Celebrate the City event running from next Thursday 21 June until Sunday. The first Walk will start at 2pm Thurday 21 June 2012 and at the same time Friday. Saturday and Sunday the walk starts at 10am. Meet at Chancery Lane Tube. You will end the walk at the London Silver Vaults about an hour later, where you can see an exhibition of 20th Century Modernist silver called Post War Winners. The guided walk is free but you do need to book. Book here on the Celebrate the City website. The Vaults are closed on Sundays. Over the course of these four very special days (21 – 24 June), thousands of people will be given the keys to the City of London, as the Square Mile opens its doors to reveal many of its secrets and treasures. It's your chance to enjoy the freedom of the City of London - and a unique opportunity to find out why the Square Mile is not as square as you might think! Launching on Midsummer Day (21 June) with Tchaikovsky’s thunderous 1812 Overture performed in Guildhall Yard by musicians from Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Celebrate the City events – most of which are free-of charge - will include glittering exhibitions, City walks and talks, Livery Hall openings, family entertainment at the Cheapside Fayre, activities at the Barbican Centre and Museum of London, and music in many of the City’s churches. Celebrate the City is a joint collaboration between the City’s arts partners, attractions, livery companies, churches, retail and hotels. It is promoted by the City of London Corporation and the Diocese of London with generous support from the City Bridge Trust.

Causing a flutter at the Antiques Road Show

A spectacular diamond butterfly brooch from the Edwardian period was on last Sunday’s (1st April) Antiques Road Show and was valued for insurance at £60000, much to the delight of the mother and daughter who brought it to the show. If you were looking closely at the screen you would have seen Linden and Co, 85 New Bond Street, printed inside the lid of the brooch box.
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There is still a Linden & Co today which is based at the London Silver Vaults and specialises in antique silver and jewellery. Steven Linden’s great uncle originally worked out of a tiny office near London’s Piccadilly and did rather well when Britain came off the gold standard causing a flurry of buying and selling in gold and silver. With his profits he opened a double fronted jewellery shop in upmarket Bond Street. Two nephews joined him in the business; one was Steven’s father. After his uncle died, Stevens’s father set up Linden & Co in 1960 at the London Silver Vaults, which is now run by his two sons Steven & Howard.

Says Steven Linden, ‘My great uncle’s combination of entrepreneurial spirit and good eye for quality was the key to a very successful career. Over 60 years later like many of the dealers in the silver vaults whose knowledge have been handed down through the generations, we probably know a thing or two about silver & jewellery, which makes the Vaults a rather special place to shop. And butterfly brooches are still very popular.’

Flickering candlelight in a room adds a magical touch. If you add silver in the form of candlesticks, the effect of candlelight and silver can be utterly stunning. So while the nights are still dark and cold, here are some ideas to add warmth to your evenings in.

In its current selling exhibition, The London Silver Vaults has an eclectic mix of antique and modern silver candlesticks, candelabra and other devices for carrying the flame into 2012. You can find timeless Georgian elegance like the candlesticks shown here from 1763 through to avant garde contemporary design like this de Vecchi 20th century flourish known as the T8 candelabra.

A cluster of candlesticks works to better effect. Put a string of candlesticks down the centre of a dining table and set these off with tea-lights underneath. But never leave lit candles unattended in a room.

Silver collectors visiting the display will be intrigued by some very unusual pieces such as a rare pair of adjustable candle-holders for the piano, a J Gilbert candle snuffer and tray in Old Sheffield Plate or a really stunning pair of five-light candelabra with a Chinese style bamboo pattern from the turn of the century.
Carrying the Flame runs until mid May 2012. See the catalogue for a list of the exhibits

Hand Mirrors Popular Again

The dressing table mirror is the ‘comeback’ item in a recent Kate Shapland beauty notebook for the Telegraph Magazine (10 December 2011). Remember them? A mirror with a long elegant handle, set in wood, glass or silver, that allows you to see your latest hairdo from the back if you hold it up to another mirror. At the London Silver Vaults there are some delightful hand mirrors to buy, either in decorated silver or with enamelled backs in whites, blues and greens. They date back to late Victorian times or the more recent Edwardian era and they were still being made in the 1960s. Prices are around the £200 mark or even half that for something less ornate. A very special Valentine’s Day present.

Silver Christmas gifts for your favourite cook

Buy an antique silver gadget for the cook or chef in your life and they will be deeply impressed. Cooks since the Georgian times in England have been using silver for cooking and serving their meals because of its special properties: it doesn’t taint the food, it heats up quickly and it cleans easily. They warmed their brandy (for pouring onto Christmas puddings) and sauces in silver pans, made toasted cheese delicacies in silver dishes, ladled the soups out of silver tureens, sifted icing or caster sugar (onto their mince pies) and strained orange juice into the mulled wine.

Here is an A-Z OF SILVER CULINARY EQUIPMENT which is both unique and useful and can be bought at the London Silver Vaults in Chancery Lane, London. Examples are on display in The Cook's Kitchen exhibition until the end of January 2012.

CHEF'S SILVER
Basting spoons – Georgian examples are very collectable. Great as serving spoons.
Brandy warmers – small pans with a lip for pouring and usually a wooden handle.
Chafing dish – a lidded dish, insulated to keep contents warm.
Dish cross – a raised silver dish holder with a central burner, for keeping food hot at the table.
Gravy strainer – to strain out any lumps from meat juice or gravy.
Meat skewer – for use with a boned and rolled joint of meat, mostly mid-Georgian.
Nutmeg grater - popular during the period 1780-1840.
Sugar caster - for refined sugar, with a removable, pierced lid. 1850s onwards.
Tea caddy spoons - from the 1770s onwards but mostly 1800s and up to the 1940s.
Tea infuser – for making tea, and infusing spices into sauces.


PRESENTATION
Asparagus - tongs and serving sets
Breakfast Dish – large scrolling lidded serving dish for serving the bacon & eggs.
Entrée dish – a fairly shallow, lidded serving dish for meat or vegetables, used on the table or buffet.
Ham Stand - for holding a cooked ham for carving. Magnificent example in the show.
Mazarine - an oval pierced plate used in serving fish (or meat). 18th century onwards.
Meat dish & cover – often with a ‘sunken well & tree’ to catch the juices.
Muffin dish – created especially to keep muffins hot, straight from the griddle.
Soup tureen – these first came into vogue in the early 18th century.

SPECIALIST CUTLERY FOR COOKING, SERVING,EATING
Carving sets – elegant set of carving knife, fork and steel.
Cold meat servers – with flat grips to pick up slices easily, and with a scissor-action.
Fish slice – for serving a whole fish at the table. later Georgian period onwards.
Knife rest – traditionally used to rest the carving knife on when not in use
Lobster picks & crackers
Pastry forks – with three tines/prongs, one of which is wider to cut through pastry. Marrow scoop or spoon – designed to scoop out the cooked marrow from a bone.
Serving sets – knife and large fork, or trowel-shaped server for cakes and tarts.
Sugar Nips or Tongs.
Toasting fork – with a long, extendable handle, used to toast bread (or marsh mallows) at the fireside.


ON THE TABLE
Argyll (Argyle) – an insulated jug to keep gravy or sauce warm.
Butter boat – a small boat-shaped serving dish for pouring melted butter at table.
Carafe or decanter – a more glamourous way to serve wine or port at table.
Condiment set – usually comprising mustard, pepper and salt pots.
Cream jug – typically small upright or boat style jug for pouring cream at table.
Cruet sets – comprising three, four or more (sometimes eight) silver stoppered glass bottles.
Egg coddler – a small, deep lidded dish containing a holder for cooking four eggs
Gravy boat – typically boat-shaped for pouring sauce or gravy.
Oil & vinegar sets – more popular from the late Victorian period.
Sugar caster – to dredge sugar on fruit or cakes or mince pies.
Salt cellars – traditionally lined in Bristol blue glass as salt tarnishes pure silver.
Spoon warmers – often in shell or cornucopia form.

Vote Silver Vaults Best Antiques Shop

To mark National Antiques Week 14 to 21 November 2011, Homes & Antiques magazine is asking antiques fans to vote for their best antiques shopping spots. There are five categories to choose from. No more than 50 words needed. And you could win a prize for nominating. Such as an Overnight stay at the Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath, worth £375.

To get the form click here or find out more from the Silver Vaults news room. We hope that one of your Silver Vaults dealers will be your choice or maybe you think the London Silver Vaults itself is the best antiques shop ever. It's certainly has the biggest stock of silver in the country!

End Date is 30th November 2011. The winning shops will be announced by Kirstie Allsopp at the Bath Decorative Antiques Fair on 8th March 2012.

Dining in Style at the Silver Vaults

When his owner went to see the Cook’s Kitchen selling exhibition of
silver at the London Silver Vaults (opened 3 October) there was a little
culinary treat waiting outside for Nelson the bulldog. Served in a silver bowl
of course. Well the Silver Vaults is the biggest antique silver shop in the world.