ABSTRACT
WHATEVER fashion might dictate in the way of chasing or embossing, engraving was a constant source of ornament. Engravers were specialist craftsmen, sometimes apprenticed in the Goldsmiths’ Company but usually anonymous because they registered no marks, although a body of work by one man can sometimes be recognised and attributions are possible by analogy with his work for printers, as with Thomas Bewick.1 The bulk of silver produced was in standard forms, personalised only by the far cheaper alternative of engraved armorials, which were the commonest form of ornament and could quickly be added at the time of purchase, either from a heraldic engraver’s textbook or from artwork supplied by the purchaser (see Chapter 10).
