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In The New World
by Henry Kauffman
Photo: Cruet stands, which contained casters
among their assembly, are very elegant and doubtless were a scarce commodity
in the eighteenth century. This stand was made by Daniel Christian Fueter,
New York c. 1760. The casters bear the mark of a London silversmith for
1752. Height of stand: 9-1/16". Heritage Collection.
Silver has played an unusual role in the civilization
of many lands for centuries. A similar comments could be made about the
other materials included in a survey of metal technology in America in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; however, because silver is a
precious metal, its role has been significantly different from that of
the others.
Throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth
centuries all mines of gold and silver in Europe were royal mines –
the property of the king. In areas as small as England and France, it
was comparatively easy for the royal eye to watch mining activity and
for the royal hand to collect his just return.
The remote location of prospective mines in the New World
encouraged entrepreneurs to try to find deposits of precious metal ore
in order to work them for their own interests. There were doubtless enough
customers here to patronize the poacher, and the potential for great wealth
seemed very sure if rich deposits were found.
 Unfortunately,
they found little silver or gold here in the Colonies, and, were therefore,
forced to turn their energies toward finding and refining less exotic
metals such as copper, lead, and iron.
The prestigious position of silver among the other metals
doubtless exists because it is considered a precious metal. The uses made
of it create an image of wealth and luxury. The American Indian had this
concept, for he made objects of adornment from it when he was able to
find a state of sufficiently pure silver for him to work with.
Right: A Silver Spoon with the maker's
name stamped on the top of the handle. Kauffman collection.
The affluent Colonist had his silver plate consisting
of objects with associations of luxury such as porringers, tankards, boxes,
spoons, candlesticks, and bowls. The prestige of the church was also enhanced
with the possession of chalices, flagons, and patens of silver.
But more significant than such uses is the fact that silver
was used as a medium of ex-change. Coins were made of it in Greek and
Roman times, and its use for money has in-creased from then until now.
As a matter of fact, it is now regarded so precious that substitutes such
as bronze and nickel are being used for coins, and silver has gained a
higher status than it has ever had before.
In reading the history of early America one is not particularly
impressed with the importance of the European search for silver and gold.
The zeal for the metal has been lost or hidden behind a more obvious purpose
which emphasized the desire for owning property and the search for personal
and religious freedom. The zeal also lost its fever pitch early in Virginia,
where it was probably most intense, because a "green gold" called
tobacco provided the wealth which the rich planter sought in America.
There must, however, have been mixed emotions about the
settling of America in the royal family of England and the rich merchants
as they witnessed the greatest population migration of all time to the
New World. They did know their natural resources were rapidly being depleted,
and they were importing wood and metals from Scandinavia and Russia. If
approval for migration needed any stimulus, certainly it was nurtured
with the knowledge of the great wealth Spain was acquiring from her colonies
in the Western Hemisphere.
Pair of sauce boats by Christopher Hughes
working in Baltimore 1771-1790. The initial DEG stand for their owner
Daniel E. Grant who owned the Indian Queen tavern and later the Fountain
Inn of that city. The lack of silver articles in the Federal style suggests
that he was not very productive in his later life. He died in 1824. Courtesy
Old Salem.
A short treatment of some of the important facts relating
to early silver will focus attention on the eventful activities of the
time. It is reported that on April 12, 1519, Cortés, under the
aegis of Spain, landed in the spot which is now Vera Cruz. Fascinated
by the stories of great wealth of the inland cities, he destroyed his
ships and pressed onward with a small band of about 400 men.
He professed only friendliness for Montezuma and his subjects,
and he was rewarded with gifts such as a Spanish helmet filled to its
brim with gold dust and a disc of silver as large as a cart wheel. Cortés
reciprocated by capturing the emperor and slaughtering his subjects.
The wealth of Mexico at the time of Cortés' invasion
staggers the imagination. It is said by Benjamin White in his book Silver,
Its History and Romance that: During the reign of King Monezuma the cities
(of Mexico) abounded in products of the loom, featherwork, drinking vessels
of gold and silver, collars, bracelets, and earrings of the precious metals,
as well as grain, fruits, cacao, and articles for literary use such as
paper manufactured from the ungainly but useful cactus. The writing then
current was in the form of Hieroglyphic painting. Montezuma maintained
a large army, whose dress consisted of quilted cotton, a useful defense
against the arrows of Indian tribes. The great chiefs wore cuirasses overlaid
with thin plates of silver or gold. Their heads were protected with silver
or wooden helmets surmounted with plumes of waving feathers, producing
an effect martial and picturesque.
The palace of the kings comprised a vast pile of buildings.
The decorations were gorgeous; the walls were draped with rich hangings
and the roof inlaid with cedar and scented woods. A quarter assigned to
workers in precious metals was to be found in the market-place, where
articles could be purchased for use or ornament. Here were to be found
on sale many curious silver toys, fashioned ingeniously in the form of
birds, or fishes with movable scales.
Much of this wealth came from the great central plateau
of Mexico, which was overlaid with a mass of igneous rocks containing
metals such as silver, gold, and copper.
Silver Braziers, very useful in most households
courtesy Philadelphia Art Museum.
Mexico was a subject of Spain from 1521 until 1821. It
was autocratically ruled by five governors, Cortés being the first,
and sixty-two viceroys. The agents of the rulers were very adept with
divining rods and in extracting secrets from natives concerning the location
of rich deposits of silver.
From 1542 until 1832 one region produced silver bullion
worth more than 667 pesos. It is estimated that from 1521 until 1891 the
silver produced in Mexico was worth more than 4,000,000,000 dollars and,
if modern mining methods had been used, the figure might have been doubled.
The preceding figures might lead one to assume that Spain's
success in security wealth from the New World in the sixteenth century
was the prologue to England's attempts at colonization, the first successful
one occurring at Jamestown in 1607. It should be noted that this project
was a cooperative venture between the royalty and others who volunteered
either their money or their services.
And, most significantly, the reasons for colonization
enumerated in the charter of the Virginia Company of London were to expand
the kingdom, to find a passage to the Orient, and to prospect for precious
metals. The only direct feudal relation with the king was the fact that
he was to receive a percentage of the precious metals found.
There is no evidence that provision was made for the mining
and refining of precious metals by the first contingent of settlers sent
to America; however, the "first supply" which arrived a year
later included two goldsmiths, named William Johnson and Richard Belfield.
At that time a goldsmith also worked with silver and was equally familiar
with both metals. Later, a refiner named William Callicut convinced the
settlers he had found small deposits of silver and that more could be
had for the digging.
Disenchantment about precious metals must have come early
in the wake of Virginia colonization, for in 1608 Captain Newport in his
report emphasized the richness of the soil, the great quantities of fish
and timber, and of clay for making brick. The possible exports he mentioned
included were sturgeon, clapboard, wainscot, saxafrage, tobacco, dyes,
furs, pitch, resin, turpentine, oils, wine, soap ashes, iron, copper,
and pearls, but details regarding the resources of silver and gold were
very vague.
Comment by Captain John Smith corroborates Newport's findings,
for he says the following about the situation:
But the worst (of our difficulties) was our gilded refiners
with their golden promises made all men their slaves in hope of recompensate:
there was no talk, no work, but to dig gold, wash gold, such a bruit of
gold, that one fellow desired to be buried in the sands lest they should
by their art make gold of his bones.
The scarcity of gold and silver ores in Virginia is confirmed
by the fact that no notions regarding the mining of silver are reported
in the Virginia Gazette in the eighteenth century. Although foreign intelligence
probably had a higher priority for news than local happenings, it is very
likely that any activity related to local resources of gold and silver
would have been broadcast to the citizens through their local news media.
It is very evident that little silver was found in what
is now continental United States in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
It should also be noted that the problem of scarcity was compounded by
the lack of metallurgical knowledge required to find and refine silver
which few men must have had at that time.
Silver is obtained by a number of methods. For centuries
man knew it existed in nature in a pure form, and little knowledge was
needed to fashion such metal into small objects of utility and beauty.
It has been noted the American Indian made limited use of the metal.
Deposits of silver are usually occur in dry barren areas
such as the southwestern United States, Mexico, Peru, and the arid table-
lands of Chile. The ores are known as red silver ore, horn ore, and argentite.
Silver is also a by-product of other major mining enterprises, the Anaconda
Copper Company being the largest producer of silver in America today.
Argentite, a combination of silver and sulphur, is the
ore from which silver is most frequently obtained. It is from gold workings
which led to the discovery of the Comstock lode in Nevada in the late
1850s.
The gold workers, being unaware of the value of the substances
they were discarding, sold the fringe interest for a bottle of whiskey,
some blankets, a horse, and 2500 dollars. In the year 1863 silver worth
$15,000,000 was dug from the lode, and four years after the deal was made,
the mine was valued at 7,600,000 dollars.
The appearance of red silver ore also conceals the identity
of the valuable metal; a piece containing as much as 60 per cent silver
looks to be rusty and worthless. Horn silver is combined with chlorine
and is virtually colorless; deposits of this ore have been found in South
America. Silver is also frequently found to be combined with copper or
lead. In such cases the major product is not silver but, as a by-product,
silver is terribly important. One of the unique combinations of silver
with other ores is evidenced in the modern discovery of silver at Cobalt,
Canada. The deposits were first discovered in the late nineteenth century,
when the Temiskaning and Northern Ontario Railway was built.
As a matter of fact, excavations for the railroad revealed
the bed which has since become one of the most productive silver sources
in the world. Deposits vary from native ores in chunks the size of a man
to dendritic ore, where veins resemble the trunk and limbs of a tree.
Although the major product is silver, the ores contain
valuable portions of cobalt, nickel, and arsenic. From 1904 to 1915 The
Nipissing mine of the region produced silver valued at $22,158,065 dollars.
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