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Stories in Sterling Four Centuries of Silver in New York

Margaret K. Hofer with Debra Schmidt Bach. Essays by Kenneth L. Ames, David L. Barquist and Margaret K. Hofer

Published by GILES in association with the New-York Historical Society

Publish Date — May 2012 (UK and USA)

Dimensions — 352 pages, 279 x 216 mm (8½ x 11 in)

Illustrations — 265 colour and 175 b&w illustrations

Hardback price — UK£45.00/US$69.95

ISBN — 978-1-904832-65-2

Trade Orders — Please visit our Trade Orders section

Press Release — Two GILES titles win AAMC awards

Press Release — Stories in Sterling: an enlightening survey of a...

News  —  Another title receives Honorable Mention

            —  Silver exhibition opens May 4

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About the Book

Stories in Sterling is the first comprehensive survey of the New-York Historical Society’s superb collection of early American silver, one of the finest in the United States. It features the full range of silver works, from masterpieces like the 1772 salver by New York City silversmith Lewis Fueter, to the simpler, but no less significant teapot made for the Schuyler family by the Albany silversmith Kiliaen Van Rensselaer in 1695 – one of the earliest teapots made in New York.

Seven chapters consider silver from a range of perspectives: its reflection of the multiethnic character of colonial New York; the impact of industrialization on its manufacture and consumption; its role in honouring public achievement or marking rites of passage; and, finally, its ability to express its owners’ social standing. With a wealth of related objects and original documents, Stories in Sterling is a vital reference tool for for scholars, collectors and enthusiasts of American silver and culture. It features extensive and superbly illustrated entries with full dimensions, makers’ marks and weights in troy ounces, and an appendix and checklist

Accompanies a major exhibition showing at the New-York Historical Society from May 4 to September 2, 2012.

"It will surely become an essential volume in any library not only on American silver, but on social history and material culture as well" Gerald W.R. Ward, Senior Consulting Curator and Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture Emeritus, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

"Stories in Sterling: Four Centuries of Silver in New York is an engrossing slice of history as told through one of the most treasured metals. Anyone with a love of silver, an admiration for creativity or an interest in New York’s great history will want to own this beautiful book" Donald Fennimore, Curator Emeritus, Winterthur Museum

"Stories in Sterling will undoubtedly become one of the standard reference books on American silver and an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the rich social and cultural history of New York and its inhabitants" Beth Carver Wees, Curator of American Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

About the Author(s)

Margaret K. Hofer is curator of Decorative Arts at the New-York Historical Society, where she has organized numerous exhibitions, including A New Light on Tiffany (2007), which she co-authored. Debra Schmidt Bach, associate curator at the New-York Historical Society organized the exhibition The Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New-York Historical Society,(2010). Kenneth Ames is professor of American Decorative Arts and Material Culture of the 18th and 19th-centuries at the Bard Graduate Center, New York. His publications include Beyond Necessity: Art in the Folk Tradition; Death in the Dining Room and Other Tales of Victorian Culture (1995). David Barquist is curator of American Decorative Arts at Philadelphia Museum of Art, and a scholar on colonial New York silver. He is the author of Myer Myers Jewish Silversmith in Colonial New York(2001).