A SMALL COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE SILVER
AND OBJECTS OF VERTU |
an illustrated selection of antique silver and objects of vertu
Continental, European, Italian, Russian, German, French, English, Austrian, Scottish, American, Dutch, Danish, Judaica, Georgian, Spanish, Swedish and much more... |
A SMALL COLLECTION OF ANTIQUES
AND ITS ORIGIN
My first purchase of silver was made in 1996, when at an antique fair I bought a briar-wood box with a silver
cover. Silver was hallmarked with the "Fascio" mark. So I understood it was made in Italy, around 1935/1940.
After this first meeting with the "world of silver", I began to frequent antique markets and shops and to buy
books and silver auction catalogs, looking for silver items to add to the
little collection I was trying to put together.
Soon I discovered that collecting silver is an expensive business. To collect "antique" silver is a "highly"
expensive business. You may have an idea of prices looking at a Sotheby's or Christie's auction catalog,
where thousands of dollars are requested for any antique silver object.
Then, I decided to devote my research (and my limited resources) to collecting Continental Silver,
particularly of small dimension, attaining the result of contain costs and reduce spaces necessary to
preserve my growing collection and putting together some pieces of 18th century and much more of 19th century.
Even though my main interest is for silver objects, in recent years I've begun to buy non silver related
items including in my collection some pieces as cameo glass vases, "barbotine" dishes, portrait miniatures,
shell cameo brooches, and others.
At present I continue to look for silver and objects of vertu pieces, with preference for items of uncommon
shape or use, and I've extended the field of my research to internet.
In this site I illustrate some of my preferred pieces. You may click on the item's index to see photos and
description of the objects. I hope you'll like them.
On April 2004 I've founded ASCAS - Association of Small Collectors of Antique Silver.
ASCAS is an association between collectors and lovers of antique silver. Its objective is
to promote friendship between its members and to spread knowledge of antique silver items, their
hallmarks and their workmanship techniques.
ASCAS has 250 members throughout the world and every month publishes on its website
www.ascasonline.org
and its monthly newsletter many interesting articles related to silver. Its archive is now the wider
gathering of articles related to silver freely available on the web.
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None of my items are for sale, but most of them were bought through the Internet.
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