British and Irish Silver in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums

The Fogg Art Museum's silver collection is one of the most significant in America and includes objects that range from Elizabethan cups to works by such celebrated artists as Paul de Lamerie. This elegant book features over three hundred pieces from the collectionmany previously unpublishedthat together offer a survey of silverware across three centuries. Each object is beautifully reproduced as well as all markssome of which are newly identified. Fascinating texts analyze and describe the collection and examine the changing tastes of silver collectors in 20th-century New England, painting a vivid portrait of collecting decorative arts in America. The contributions foreign craftsmen made to silver produced in London in the 17th and 18th centuries are also discussed, providing new information on the silversmithing trade of the time.

Christopher Hartop is an independent author and consultant. He was Head of the Silver Department and later Executive Vice President, Christie’s, New York, 1984–99. He has written several books, including The Huguenot Legacy: English Silver 1680–1760, which was awarded the National Huguenot Society Annual Book Prize in 1997. Ellenor Alcorn is Curator for the Gans Collection of English Silver at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia.