Victorian Sterling Silver Waiter with Engraved Birds & Scrolls

• Goldsmiths' Alliance - The Goldsmiths' Alliance was a trade association for goldsmiths and silversmiths in London, England. It was founded in the late 19th century and was active until the 1960s. The organisation represented the interests of goldsmiths and silversmiths in London and provided a range of services to its members, including legal assistance, business advice, and financial support. It also promoted the work of its members and helped to ensure that high standards of craftsmanship and ethics were maintained within the industry. The Goldsmiths' Alliance was affiliated with the Goldsmiths' Company, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious goldsmithing organizations in the world.
• Sterling Silver - Sterling silver is a mixture of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% of another metal, usually copper. Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver, and is relatively soft and the addition of the very small amount of copper gives the metal enough strength and hardness to be worked into jewellery, decorative and household objects.
• Engraving - The method of decorating or creating inscriptions on silver and other metal objects by marking the surface with a sharp instrument such as a diamond point or rotating cutting wheel.
• Victorian Period - The Victorian period of furniture and decorative arts design covers the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. There was not one dominant style of furniture in the Victorian period. Designers used and modified many historical styles such as Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, English Rococo, Neoclassical and others, although use of some styles, such as English Rococo and Gothic tended to dominate the furniture manufacture of the period.
  
  The Victorian period was preceded by the Regency and William IV periods, and followed by the Edwardian period, named for Edward VII (1841 ? 1910) who was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India for the brief period from 1901 until his death in 1910.

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• waiters - silver items 111