The recent dramatic increase in the value of precious metals has led many people to consider selling their silver, everything from the rarely used flatware set to the inherited tea and coffee service. Precious metals are a commodity, but they are also used to create beautiful objects, both for utilitarian purposes and pure admiration. The mining and use of silver dates back centuries. Silver objects became more readily available as time and technology progressed. Silver provided status and it provided portable wealth. It was a convenient metal to melt down in order to make new coins and to pay expenses. There is a reason when you walk into many museums today, there is a lack of historic silver from European countries. King Louis XIV of France melted down solid silver pieces of furniture from Versailles to finance armies. Charles I of England ordered the colleges of Oxford to cede their silver plates to be melted and cut into coins to fund Royalist endeavors during the English Civil War. We will never see, in person, what those pieces ever looked like.
Understandably, when economic conditions are uncertain, people turn to selling assets. We also live in an age when downsizing and letting go of possessions is the constant goal. And those are all good things to do. We shouldn’t carry the tangible burden of our ancestors, but we shouldn’t melt our history, either. Each city, each region, each country in the world, has silver that reflects its history. The mid-Atlantic region, especially Baltimore, was a particularly important epicenter of silver manufacture. Silversmiths like Samuel Kirk, Stieff, Schofield, Philip Benjamin Sadtler, Andrew Ellicott Warner, Jacobi & Jenkins, and many others, created what we know today as “Baltimore Silver.” The high-relief ornate decoration known as repousse was a technique used in silver production throughout the world. Baltimore turned it into a style. In Baltimore and the surrounding communities, it became a way of life and represented a rite of passage for local families, whether it was a new bride selecting her Kirk or Stieff flatware or families passing down tea and coffee sets through the generations. You could say that Baltimore Silver was the city’s lifestyle brand.
From left to right: Lot 423, Twelve Baltimore Sterling Repousse Chargers, sold in April 2021 for $22,140; Lot 436, An Impressive Baltimore Sterling Alms Basin, sold in April 2021 for $57,600
From left to right: Lot 447, Schofield Sterling Repousse Water Pitcher, sold in June 2025 for $2,730; Lot 454 Rare Schofield Sterling Repousse Flower Basket, sold in April 2026 for $3,200
Fortunately, the interest in owning and collecting Baltimore Silver continues today, but collecting interests change with the generations. Tastes and lifestyles change. The temptation is to sell valuable pieces and collections in the easiest way possible, rather than the best way possible, the way that preserves historic significance. Selling the family silver at auction preserves history, allows individuals and institutions to continue their mission to collect, and antique dealers the ability to sell to new audiences. Just like the museum-goers of today who miss the opportunity to see pieces of past ages, we don’t want to deprive younger generations of their more immediate history. If we melt everything down today, what will the museums of tomorrow display?
Alex Cooper Auctioneers is perfectly poised in the Mid-Atlantic region to achieve high values for silver at auction. Ideally situated between Boston and Richmond, we sell silver passed down through established American families, foreign dignitaries, and collectors who have travelled as military personnel and diplomats. Our buyers are local, domestic, and international. In recent years, Alex Cooper Auctioneers sold several pieces of silver that descended from Josephine de Beauharnais that were repatriated to France. We have represented local collections, including auctioning the historic liturgical silver from Old St. Paul’s church in Baltimore. That collection was sold to a local institution and will stay in Baltimore where it can be viewed and preserved for future generations. Alex Cooper also represents estates with varied collections of silver, including the Estate of Linda McRae Noe Laine whose vast collection contained both Baltimore and American silver including Tiffany, some with presidential, military, and foreign leader significance. These pieces all found homes with new collectors and institutions that prized their important historical contribution to the local community and larger aesthetic appeal, rather than be melted and lost to time.
Lot 416, Tiffany Sterling Bowl of Presidential Significance, sold in April 2021 for $2,176
Lisa Jones
Director of Silver, USPAP Appraiser
lisa@alexcooper.com
