Silver was an integral element of the “conspicuous consumption” practiced by wealthy early Americans—and the Southern elite were particularly fond of the innate value and beauty of the silversmiths’ products. MESDA’s exceptional silver collection has grown slowly and deliberately since the museum opened in 1965. Today, MESDA has one of the finest collections of early Southern silver from all three of its collecting regions: the Chesapeake, the Lowcountry, and the Backcountry.

The Carolina Lowcountry’s rice- and cotton-based economy supported an affluent population that esteemed fine goods. Charlestonians emulated the best of British culture and actively sought out the latest London styles. The Chesapeake region was also characterized by an agricultural economy – here tobacco and wheat – where commerce and travel were by river and small towns experienced slow growth. As in Charleston, the Chesapeake gentry emulated the latest in British style, but did so with more restraint. To Chesapeake planters, “Neat and plain” style was thought to exemplify an honest and moral character.

The South’s Backcountry began to be settled in the early seventeenth century, but remained sparsely populated until the nineteenth century. Distances were traveled by horse and wagon over periods of days and weeks, and the everyday frontier needs of the German, Scots-Irish, and Quaker settlements heavily influenced the production of Backcountry artisans. Outside the urban centers of the Chesapeake and Lowcountry, silversmiths diversified their talents to include other related skills like survey-instrument making, harness plating, dentistry, gunsmithing, blacksmithing, and clockmaking.

Adapted from “Of the Latest Style: Silver in the MESDA Collection” in The Magazine Antiques (1/2007) article by Catherine B. Hollan, independent scholar.