Silver in Tudor and Early Stuart England

The national collection of English silver contains a hundred and fifty objects made between about 1480 and 1660.

Here fully cataloged for the first time, they include the famous Howard Grace cup, associated with Thomas a Becket, a rare set of Elizabethan spice plates, mounted porcelain, and the largest group of English salts to survive.

Court goldsmiths' work is represented by a pair of snuffers made for the Privy Council of Edward VI and by the astonishing dolphin basin, raised from a single sheet of metal, by Christian van Vianen, goldsmith to Charles I.

Scientific analysis has enabled us to distinguish the genuine unaltered Tudor objects from those which have been 'improved' and those which are the product of nineteenth-century historicism.

This book will appeal to all who are interested in Tudor and Stuart history and art, as well as to students of social and economic history.