Eugenio Avolio (1876-1929) was a famous sculptor, silversmith and engraver. He lived and worked in Naples between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. He was apprenticed to the popular artist and sculptor Vincenzo Gemito. Professor at the Arts Academy in Naples, he received several international awards.

The mark “KB” appears on some of the finest objets d’art produced in Vienna in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Objects of the highest quality - such as tazzas, cups, nefs, clocks, cornucopias - were made in Vienna, emulating the style of Italian Renaissance and Baroque, using beautifully carved rock crystal or hand-painted enamel, and mounted in elaborate silver-gilt mounts and set with precious stones.

Mario Buccellati was born in Milan in 1891. His father died when he was only fourteen and he started working to support his family. He was apprenticed to the jewellery firm Beltrami & Beltrami, based in Milan.

Well known as silversmith to the kings Louis XVIII and Charles X, Jean-Charles Cahier was apprenticed to Martin-Guillaume Biennais, silversmith appointed by Napoleon. In 1801 he became master silversmith and in 1821, after Biennais retirement, he took over his company.

William Cripps was a prominent and prolific manufacturing and retail silversmith based in London.

After being apprenticed to the popular goldsmith and banker William Daume, he was set free in 1738 and five years later he submitted his first mark as a largeworker in Compton Street, Soho.

Sampson Mordan was a British silversmith and inventor, specialised in pens and novelties.

He was apprenticed to the locksmith Joseph Bramah.

James Charles Edington was an important English silversmith, producing silver in Victorian and Georgian style.

Mappin & Webb has been for over two centuries one of the most illustrious British manufacturing and retail silversmith company.

Jonathan Mappin opened his first silver workshop in 1775 in Sheffield, a major centre of the English silver market.

Jonathan Hayne was a prolific English silversmith of the 19th century.

He was born in Clerkenwell, London, son of a surgeon. He apprenticed as a silversmith and started is career in 1810, entering his mark in partnership with Thomas Wallis, at 16 Red Lion Street in Clerkenwell. Six years later Wallis and Hayne dissolved their partnership and in 1821 Jonathan entered his own first mark.

The company is considered the main producer of Hanau silver. During the 19th Century Hanau became famous for its silversmith workshops producing excellent copies of antique silver in historical styles.

Johann Daniel Schleissner, son of a goldsmith in Augsburg, moved to Hanau in 1816 and the following year he opened his own company. He produced items in the Augsburg style and sold them internationally, especially in Russia, France and Near East.

John Edward Terrey was an important English silversmith producing mainly tableware and presentation pieces in Georgian and Victorian style. Apart from making very fine new pieces, he also used to recuperate antique silver by altering and rechasing it.

Neresheimer & Sohne is undoubtedly the most famous of the Hanau silversmiths working at the end of the 19th century.

At the end of the 19th century in fact, the city of Hanau, not far from Frankfurt in Germany, became famous for its silver industry tradition: Hanau manufacturers specialised in fine copies from the antique, in the most popular historical styles, generally marked with pseudo-hallmarks in the manner they were trying to imitate.

Scholar Adrien Von Ferscht described Cheong Lam as ‘a sadly all too rare retail silversmith whose work demonstrates clearly a highly creative mind and a quest for the highest quality’ (A. Von Ferscht, Chinese Export Silver 1785-1940, 4th edition 2015).

Wing Fat is a very fine although quite rare Chinese retail silversmith, active in Canton and Hong Kong between 1875 and 1930. The person at the head of the company is still unknown, but surely he employed very fine artisans, not just in Canton, but also in Shanghai to create superb quality items.

Hoaching (original Cantonese name is Wo Hing) is one of the largest silversmithing businesses based in Canton between 1825 and 1880. The shop, initially retailing finely carved ivory, is documented since 1825. It was later taken over by the founder’s two sons, and by 1850 the firm was retailing also silver, jewellery items, carved wood, mother of pearl and lacquer.

Cum wo is one of the first Chinese Export silversmiths known active in Hong Kong since 1860. He had a shop in Queen’s Road, where many silversmiths were based, but the superb quality of his works and the attention to details made him stand out among the others.

Tu Mao Xing mark is a quite a recent discovery: until 1980’s in fact he was wrongly identified as Kan Mao Xing and therefore not much is known about him. Tu Mao Xingis one of the first silversmiths operating in Kiukang between 1880 and 1930 and he is certainly one of the finest 19th Century Chinese silversmiths.

Cutshing is the trading name of a company based in Canton famous for retailing luxury items in silver, ivory, jade as well as high quality filigree and enamel items.

Active in the late 19th Century, Tuck Chang is undoubtedly the most popular retail silversmith of Shanghai, thus often referred to as the ‘Wang Hing of Shanghai’.

Like Wang Hing, the firm also traded in jade, ivory and jewellery.

Luen Wo was a very important retail silversmith based in Shanghai, he also traded in jewellery, diamonds and embroideries. His artworks show a very high quality that only equals the standards of Wang Hing, in Canton.