Description:
Fused silver plate bat wing drawer pull marked "IH" on the back twice for Joseph Hancock (1711-1791). Thomas Boulsover (1704-1788), a Sheffield cutler, invented the process which became called Sheffield plate about 1740; the date is uncertain because no patent was taken out. In Sheffield plate, a sheet of silver is fused on to a thicker one of copper (referred to as “fused plating”) and the compound billet rolled, both metals expanding equally, become a thin sheet of copper coated with a layer of silver. The next known manufacturer was Joseph Hancock in 1755, who applied fused plating to larger pieces, but others also began and in 1784 the Sheffield Plate makers obtained an Act of the Parliament legalizing a mark consisting of the full name of the maker and an associated device. The objects formed from fused plate are commonly known in the antiques trade as “Old Sheffield Plate.” About 1840, the Electroplate process superseded Sheffield Plate and its production ceased about 1860. The term Sheffield, which refers to the town that became the center for the silver plate industry, is a slight misnomer, since the city of Birmingham also produced large quantities of fused plate.
Subjects:
Copper Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+70.147 |
