Part 3

One is the true hallmark, the symbol of the guildhall where it was assayed. That of the guild of London goldsmiths is the head of a leopard and has been in use for the nearly seven centuries since 1300. Assay offices established later in a few other cities use other symbols.

Another is the maker's mark, which has been required since 1363. This mark is now always the maker's initials, but once was more often his trade symbol.

In 1478 a system was adopted of dating each piece assayed by stamping it with one letter of the alphabet. For this purpose a twenty-letter alphabet is used, the design of the letter or of the surrounding panel being changed every twenty years.

Finally, the mark of English sterling standard fineness--a lion passant--has been used (with one twenty-three-year interruption) since 1544 to certify that the metal is 92.5 per cent pure silver. English silver rarely bears the word "sterling," which is commonly found on modern American silver and on that made in some other countries for sale to Americans. Hallmarking of British goldware is somewhat different.

Colonial American silversmiths did not adopt the elaborate marking tradition of the Old World. In the English colonies no legal requirements existed for marking of any kind, the guild system was not transplanted, and until 1814 there was not even an assay office. So colonial smiths put only their own mark on their work. At first this was composed of the maker's initials only, but later became more often his surname, with or without initial. Some smiths also used a symbol--John Coney the figure of a rabbit, for example--but this was comparatively rare. Of the Williamsburg silversmiths we have positive or presumed maker's marks of only two--James Geddy and Alexander Kerr.

_THE GEDDY SHOP AND THE GOLDEN BALL TODAY_

Two reconstructed silversmithing shops in Williamsburg once more stand in the same spots occupied by similar establishments in the eighteenth century. Both are operating craft shops where skilled workers in costume produce articles of gold and silver using methods and tools like those employed by James Craig, James Geddy, Jr., and other Williamsburg silversmiths two centuries ago. For reasons important to twentieth-century visitors, a partial division of functions has been established: The making of jewelry and smaller silver items and engraving are emphasized at the Golden Ball; the casting of silver (done at the Geddy Foundry along with founding in other metals) and the making of larger pieces, particularly hollow ware, are more prominent at the Geddy Shop.

The original structure at the site of the Golden Ball, possibly built in 1724, remained standing until 1907, undergoing repairs and alterations from time to time. Craig had his shop in the western portion for a period before 1765, renting the space from James Carter, surgeon. In that year he bought the western fifteen feet of the house and lot, and the next year acquired the rest of it. After Craig's death the building served its succeeding owners as a residence. The recollections of several old inhabitants of Williamsburg, a faded photograph, deeds, tax records, insurance policies, and excavated colonial brick foundations have all provided clues in reconstructing the building to its original outward appearance and inward room arrangement.

As for the shop itself, it has been designed and equipped--insofar as careful research and discerning imagination can make it--as it might have been in James Craig's day. Lacking any descriptive material on the contents of the Golden Ball, the architects and curators have had to draw on other sources. The forge, for example, was designed and built in the image of forges described by Benvenuto Cellini and pictured in Diderot's _Encyclopedia_. Some of the wall cabinets were made in imitation of those on display in European craft museums.

Much the same may be said of the Geddy Shop. Whereas the two-story, ell-shaped house dates to about 1750, the two shops of one and a half storys extending to the east of the house are reconstructed on original foundations still in the ground. James Geddy, Jr., probably worked on the premises before 1760, when he bought the house and lot from his mother. He rented out the easternmost shop but continued to practice silversmithing--presumably in the middle shop--until 1777 when he moved away and sold the property.

Since no records survive as to the interior arrangement or contents of the shop, the architects and curators have again had to use their best judgment and the most appropriate precedents and parallels in designing and furnishing the shop. While none of the silversmithing tools now used in either of the two shops are those of James Craig or James Geddy, Jr., some of them may have belonged to an English silversmith of the eighteenth century by the name of George Wickes. One particular tool, a square "stake" or anvil, displayed in the Geddy Shop, once belonged to Paul Revere. It was given to Colonial Williamsburg by Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, whose husband's outstanding collection of American silver is housed at Yale University.

JAMES CRAIG, AT THE GOLDEN BALL, WILLIAMSBURG,

BEGS leave to inform the public that he has just got an eminent hand in the WATCH AND CLOCK MAKING BUSINESS, who served a regular apprenticeship to the same in _Great Britain_, and will be obliged to those who favour him with their commands. He makes and repairs REPEATING, HORIZONTAL, and STOP WATCHES, in the neatest and best manner. JEWELLERY, GOLD, and SILVERWORK, as usual, made at the above shop, for READY MONEY only.

James Geddy repaired watches, advertising that "he still continues to clean and repair Watches, and repairs his own work that fails in a reasonable time, without any expense to the purchaser." Rough castings in brass for spandrels to decorate the faces of clocks and many fragments of watch crystals have been found in the course of archaeological excavation of the Geddy property. On several occasions James Craig advertised that his customers could have "All Kinds of CLOCKS and WATCHES cleaned and repaired" in his shop, and twice announced that he had "just got an eminent Hand, in the WATCH and CLOCK MAKING BUSINESS, who served a regular Apprenticeship to the same in Great Britain."

In cabinets of rooms adjoining both shops the visitor may examine a collection of silver, cutlery, jewelry, and similar articles made in England and in the colonies during the eighteenth century. Of particular interest are the black enameled "mourning rings" so popular at that time. It was the custom for a man of wealth to provide in his will for the purchase of rings to be worn by members of his family and close friends. All Williamsburg silversmiths and jewelers advertised that they made mourning rings "on the shortest Notice."

The contemporary silversmiths at the Geddy Shop and the Golden Ball do not make mourning rings--there is not much call for them these days. They do, however, make and sell a number of other articles of silver of true eighteenth-century design. For obvious reasons their supply of raw material comes from commercial refineries rather than from melted coins or plate. But they cast the silver, forge it, raise, seam, and solder it, and decorate the finished products just as did their predecessors.

Above all, today's silversmith and his co-workers still hammer the lustrous metal with the same love of beauty that a sculptor might have. Indeed, the hammer is the silversmith's most useful and in many ways his most delicate tool. With it he can produce effects in the metal that cannot be achieved in any other way. In fact, a fine silversmith must be able to wield a hammer much as an artist uses his brush--as if it were a natural extension of his arm.

_WILLIAMSBURG SILVERSMITHS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION_

_Patrick Beech._ Advertised himself as a silversmith and jeweler on one occasion in 1774. Nothing more is known of him.

_John Brodnax_ (or Broadnax, 1668-1719). First silversmith to practice the craft in Williamsburg, from about 1694 until his death.

_John Bryan._ Mentioned in several legal documents of the 1740s as a silversmith in Williamsburg.

_John Coke_ (1704-1767). Worked at silversmithing in Williamsburg from about 1724 until his death, and also, after 1755, kept a tavern in the present Coke-Garrett House near the Capitol.

_Samuel Coke_ (died 1773). Son of John Coke; jeweler and possibly a silversmith in his father's shop and later for himself.

_James Craig_ (died 1794). Arrived from London about 1745 as a jeweler; added silversmithing and was established at the Golden Ball by 1765.

_Jacob Flournoy_ (born 1663). Came to Williamsburg about 1700 from Switzerland, where his family were watchmakers and jewelers; referred to as a "goldsmith" in a deed of 1712.

_James Galt_ (1741-1800). Born in Williamsburg, where his father was a silversmith; had his own shop in Richmond and later in Williamsburg; became the first superintendent of the hospital for the insane in the latter place; brother of John Minson Galt, the physician, and son of:

_Samuel Galt_ (c. 1700-1761). A watchmaker who also did gold and silver work in Williamsburg from about 1750 until his death; keeper of the Public Gaol, 1759-1760.

_James Geddy, Jr._ (1731-1807). Williamsburg's most accomplished silversmith until, about 1778, he moved to Dinwiddie and thence to Petersburg.

_Alexander Kerr_ (died 1738). Arrived in Williamsburg in 1717. Jeweler and silversmith in Williamsburg for several years before his death.

_Blovet Pasteur._ Apparently born and died in Williamsburg, dates not known; a silversmith there at least from 1759 to 1778.

_James Patterson_ (died 1773). A watchmaker who probably arrived in Williamsburg about 1760, and by 1771 was also making jewelry and silver.

_William Rowsay._ Was an apprentice to James Craig in 1771; combined his jewelry and silver work with his brother John's general merchandise business in 1774.

_Anthony Singleton_ (1750-1795). Opened a jewelry and silversmith shop in Williamsburg in 1771; moved to Richmond probably in 1787.

_William Waddill._ Engraver and silversmith; worked at one time in the shop of James Geddy, Jr., who is presumed to have been his brother-in-law; moved to Richmond about 1782 and thence, it is believed, to Petersburg.

_SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING_

Carl Bridenbaugh, _The Colonial Craftsman_. New York: New York University Press, 1950.

Kathryn C. Buhler, _American Silver_. Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1950.

E. Milby Burton, _South Carolina Silversmiths, 1690-1860_. Charleston: Charleston Museum, 1942.

George Barton Cutten, _The Silversmiths of North Carolina_. Raleigh: State Department of Archives and History, 1948.

----, _The Silversmiths of Georgia, Together with Watchmakers and Jewelers_. Savannah: Pigeonhole Press, 1958.

----, _The Silversmiths of Virginia from 1694 to 1850_. Richmond: Dietz Press, 1952.

Martha Gandy Fales, _Early American Silver_. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1973.

----, _Joseph Richardson & Family: Philadelphia Silversmiths_. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1974.

Leonard Everett Fisher, _The Silversmiths_. New York: Franklin Watts, 1964.

Jennifer F. Goldsborough, _Eighteenth & Nineteenth Century Maryland Silver in the Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art_. Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1975.

High Museum of Art, _Georgia Collects American Silver, 1780-1870_. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1970.

Hugh Honour, _Goldsmiths & Silversmiths_. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1971.

Graham Hood, _American Silver, A History of Style, 1650-1900_. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971.

Houston Museum of Fine Arts, _Southern Silver: An Exhibition of Silver Made in the South prior to 1860_. Houston: Houston Museum of Fine Arts, 1968.

Henry J. Kauffman, _The Colonial Silversmith, His Techniques and His Products_. Camden, N. J.: J. Nelson, 1969.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, _Early American Silver: A Picture Book_. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1955.

Charles F. Montgomery and Catherine H. Maxwell, _Early American Silver: Collectors, Collections, Exhibitions, Writings_. Portland, Me.: Anthoensen Press, 1969.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, _Colonial Silversmiths, Masters & Apprentices_. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1956.

Ivor Noël Hume, _James Geddy and Sons, Colonial Craftsmen_. Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1970.

John Marshall Phillips, _American Silver_. London: M. Parrish, 1949.

Millicent Stow, _American Silver_. New York: Barrows Co., 1950.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, _Masterpieces of American Silver_. Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1960.

_The Silversmith in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg_ was first published in 1956. Written by Thomas K. Ford, editor, now retired, it is based largely on an unpublished monograph by Thomas K. Bullock, formerly of the Department of Research. It was reprinted in 1966, revised in 1972, and reprinted in 1976.

Transcriber's Notes

--Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.

--Silently corrected a few palpable typos.

--In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.