Contemporary Silver: Commissioning, Designing, Collecting

Rating:
Summary: Must-Have Book on Silver
Review: Looking for a book on contemporary silver?

If you go to the Web and enter "contemporary silver" in a search engine, what comes up? Not much, right? Go into Amazon.com and look there as well. You'll find just one book: Contemporary Silver: Commissioning, Designing, Creating. Sure, you'll find a few out-of-print books published in Europe, but who has the time to brush up on their German? The authors of Contemporary Silver are Benton Seymour Rabinovitch and Helen Clifford, Ph.D. Rabinovitch is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle, a member of the Silver Society (London), and Honorary Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. He is a longtime collector of antique silver and serving pieces and is the author of Antique Silver Servers for the Dining Table. Clifford has a number of degrees, is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, member of the Silver Society (London), and an honorary member of the Association of British Designer-Silversmiths. She has written and curated exhibitions on historical and contemporary silver.

The two authors have produced a book that is both beautiful and inspiring. Rabinovitch commissioned 62 notable silversmiths from the United States and Great Britain to design and create silver serving pieces in fish-server or cake-slice form. The result is an incredible range of servers in every conceivable technique. From the minimalist to the baroque, from the abstract to the representational, all are meant for practical use, though cleaning some of the more intricate pieces would certainly be a challenge.

These servers demonstrate mastery of the craft, and offer a comparative survey in technique and design between the two countries.

Each of the 62 pieces illustrated (75 have been commissioned to date) has a full description, including materials used, dimensions, and narrative, an artist's philosophy/statement, and brief personal history. Rabinovitch also comments on how he chose each silversmith for the commission.

Within the 160 pages lie chapters on the commissioning process; historical background on servers in the 18th and 19th centuries; silver design in Britain and the U.S. between 1950 and 2000; understanding the collection; the collection itself; and a helpful glossary of terms.

Buy this book!

Rating:
Summary: Must-Have Book on Silver
Review: Looking for a book on contemporary silver?

If you go to the Web and enter "contemporary silver" in a search engine, what comes up? Not much, right? Go into Amazon.com and look there as well. You'll find just one book: Contemporary Silver: Commissioning, Designing, Creating. Sure, you'll find a few out-of-print books published in Europe, but who has the time to brush up on their German? The authors of Contemporary Silver are Benton Seymour Rabinovitch and Helen Clifford, Ph.D. Rabinovitch is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle, a member of the Silver Society (London), and Honorary Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. He is a longtime collector of antique silver and serving pieces and is the author of Antique Silver Servers for the Dining Table. Clifford has a number of degrees, is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, member of the Silver Society (London), and an honorary member of the Association of British Designer-Silversmiths. She has written and curated exhibitions on historical and contemporary silver.

The two authors have produced a book that is both beautiful and inspiring. Rabinovitch commissioned 62 notable silversmiths from the United States and Great Britain to design and create silver serving pieces in fish-server or cake-slice form. The result is an incredible range of servers in every conceivable technique. From the minimalist to the baroque, from the abstract to the representational, all are meant for practical use, though cleaning some of the more intricate pieces would certainly be a challenge.

These servers demonstrate mastery of the craft, and offer a comparative survey in technique and design between the two countries.

Each of the 62 pieces illustrated (75 have been commissioned to date) has a full description, including materials used, dimensions, and narrative, an artist's philosophy/statement, and brief personal history. Rabinovitch also comments on how he chose each silversmith for the commission.

Within the 160 pages lie chapters on the commissioning process; historical background on servers in the 18th and 19th centuries; silver design in Britain and the U.S. between 1950 and 2000; understanding the collection; the collection itself; and a helpful glossary of terms.

Buy this book!