George Adams
United Kingdom
Date of Birth: 1840 — 1883
William Chawner II's son-in-law who took over Chawner & Co. with his mother-in-law Mary Chawner. He took over the firm and registered his first mark in 1840. He was an exhibitor at the 1851 Great Exhibition and the company became one of the largest producers of quality silver flatware in...
David Austin Sayre
United States
Date of Birth: 1793 — 1870
David Austin Sayre (March 12, 1793 - September, 1870) was a prominent silversmith, banker and educator. Sayre is best remembered as founder of Sayre Female Institute.
Hester Bateman
United Kingdom
Date of Birth: 1708 — 1794
The most famous woman silversmith, Bateman was the widow of John Bateman. After his death in 1760, she took over his London-based metalwork business and transformed it into one of the most successful and prolific silversmithing workshops in London. Hester and her sons were known for their...
Henry Birks
Canada
Date of Birth: 1879
Birks was by far the largest and most influential Canadian silversmith in the 20th century. Henry Birks & Company was established in Montreal in 1879 as a retail jeweler. It became Henry Birks & Sons in 1893 when his three sons joined the business. In 1897 Birks bought out Hendery & Leslie,...
Mario Buccellati
Italy
Date of Birth: 1891 — 1965
Founded in 1919 when Mario Buccellati took over Milan's Beltrami & Beltrami, Buccellati is known for its richly textured pieces that are influenced by Renaissance motifs and nature. He was the first famous for the technique of texture-engraving where pieces look like silk, damask, tulle, lace,...
William Chawner
United Kingdom
Date of Birth: 1797 — 1834
Flatware-making is one of the sub-specialties of silversmithing. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the vast majority of spoons and forks were made by specialist 'spoon makers' (knives were made by an entirely different tradesman called a cutler). The Chawner family was one of England's dominant...
Charles Christofle
France
Date of Birth: 1805 — 1863
Charles Christofle founded the company that bears his name in 1830. Originally a jeweler, he bought the patents silver plating and electrolytic gilding of gold in 1842. As a goldsmith, he transformed ceremonial items and everyday objects: from jewelry to cutlery, gold smithery to sculptures, and...
Paul de Lamerie
United Kingdom
Date of Birth: 1688 — 1751
One of the leading English silversmiths in the first half of the 1700s, Paul de Lamerie was renowned for his technical proficiency and innovative designs using bold organic forms. De Lamerie's parents, French Huguenots, probably left France for religious reasons in the 1680s, emigrating to the...
George Richards Elkington
Elkington & Co.
United Kingdom
Date of Birth: 1801 — 1865
George Richards Elkington was the son of a Birmingham spectacle manufacturer who apprenticed to his uncle’s silver plating business in 1815. Upon his uncle’s death, he took his cousin, Henry Elkington, into partnership.
Throughout its history, Elkington & Co. achieved remarkable success, and...
Jabez Gorham
Gorham Manufacturing Company
United States
Date of Birth: 1792 — 1869
Established in 1831 in Rhode Island, as a coin-silver flatware and jewelery manufacturer, Gorham eventually became one of the largest silversmiths in the world. By the late 1860s, they grossed $1 million in sales per year. Gorham was tremendously successful with flatware patterns like Chantilly,...
George Guess, aka Sequoyah
United States
Date of Birth: 1775 — 1843
Sequoyah was the creator of the Cherokee writing system. Believed to be the son of a Virginia fur trader named Nathaniel, he was raised by his Cherokee mother, Wuh-teh of the Paint clan, in the Tennessee country. He never learned to speak, read, or write English. He was an accomplished...
Robert Hennel
Hennel & Sons
United Kingdom
Date of Birth: 1800
Hennell of Bond Street is one of London's oldest silversmiths and jewellers. It was founded by David Hennell and originally made fashionable silverware for the nobility and landed gentry. David's son, Robert I, is known for his fine neoclassical silver, often with bright-cut engraving. His son,...
John Samuel Hunt
Hunt & Roskell
United Kingdom
Date of Birth: 1785 — 1865
Hunt & Roskell, an English firm of manufacturing and retail jewellers and silversmiths, was founded by Paul Storr in 1819, trading as Storr & Co. (1819-22), Storr & Mortimer (1822-38), Mortimer & Hunt (1838-43) and then Hunt & Roskell (1843-97).
After his apprenticeship with Paul Storr, John...
Georg Jensen
Denmark
Date of Birth: 1866 — 1935
Born in 1866, Jensen was the son of a knife grinder in the town of Raadvad just to the north of Copenhagen. Jensen began his training in goldsmithing at the age of 14 in Copenhagen. His apprenticeship with the firm Guldsmed Andersen, ended in 1884, and this freed Georg to follow his artistic...
Jonathan Mappin
Mappin & Webb
United Kingdom
Date of Birth: 1775
Mappin & Webb is a leading retailer of fine silverware and jewellery based in London and is renowned as a purveyor of luxury goods holding Royal Warrants.
The firm started in 1774 when Jonathan Mappin opened his first silversmith workshop in Sheffield, entering his mark in 1775. His reputation...
Nathaniel Mills
United Kingdom
Date of Birth: 1784 — 1843
Nathaniel Mills & Sons were 19th century Birmingham silversmiths who excelled in making silver boxes, snuff boxes and visiting card cases. Nathaniel Mills, the Elder, was a partner in Mills & Langston, Northwood Jewelers when he registered his first mark in 1803. In 1825, he registered his...
Jean Baptiste Claude Odiot
House of Odiot
France
Date of Birth: 1763 — 1850
The House of Odiot was founded in 1690 by Jean-Baptiste Gaspard Odiot but rose to prominence under Jean-Baptiste Claude, Gaspard's grandson. Jean-Baptiste Claude was influenced by classical Greek and Egyptian motifs as expressed in the Directoire and Empire styles.
Odiot purchased many of Henry...
Carl Poul Peterson
Canada
Date of Birth: 1895 — 1977
According to his family history, Carl Poul Petersen apprenticed at Georg Jensen in Denmark before emigrating to Canada in 1929. He worked at Henry Birks and Sons in Montreal but he also set up a studio for commission work in the late thirties. Petersen left Birks and opened his permanent studio...
Jean Puiforcat
France
Date of Birth: 1897 — 1945
Jean Puiforcat served in WWI. After the war, he apprenticed as a silversmith and a designer. He lived in Paris. He designed in the art deco style. His silver work has smooth surfaces and is based on the geometric series. Ivory, onyx, lapis lazuli and rosewood were used to decorate pieces. He...
Henry G. Reed
Reed & Barton
Date of Birth: 1810 — 1901
Founded in 1824, Reed & Barton was a silver manufacturer that produced silverware, flatware and other silver goods. The firm was known as Babit and Grossman before apprentices Henry G. Reed and Charles E. Barton took over in 1840. Descendants of Henry G. Reed remained a key part of the ownership...