Made in England
Jeremy Flint visits Hart, one of the few remaining gold and silversmiths that still hand make in the traditional way
Jeremy Flint visits England’s oldest silversmiths
VISITING the workshops of Hart Gold and Silversmiths, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d entered a time capsule. Sixty-year-old invoices, designs and drawings hang from hooks in the shallow-beamed ceilings; wooden workbenches, dented by years of use, are covered with well-worn tools; and ancient paper files, containing records of customer orders and time-honoured photos of original silverware, lie in the office.
The atmosphere is punctuated by the sound of hammers as silver is hand-beaten over metal stakes. It’s the same noise that a visitor would have heard more than a century ago, and little has changed in this smithery since it was opened here in Chipping Campden in 1902.
Today it’s the third and fourth generations of the Hart family that practise their age-old craft of working precious metals into exquisite pieces, with David Hart working with son William, nephew Julian, and Derek
Elliott (who served his apprenticeship with David as a young man). They work as individual craftsmen, each looking after their own customers and sharing the running costs of the workshop, a bit like a co-operative.
“The conditions remain unaltered and we still use the same equipment and hammers to create our objects with the addition of electric drills,” says William, who has worked with his father for 29 years.
The tradition continues down a side street in the historic Cotswold town, on the first floor of an old silk mill that is shared with a café and a gallery. As you enter the building and climb the oak staircase, you find yourself in the workshop which houses all of the traditional equipment (including a few hundred hammers and stakes) with work tables set up beside windows and in the centre of the room.
There’s an office that was once used to store finished products, and a polishing room tucked away to the left that the team use for a final clean of their creations. Next door to the studio is a small shop displaying a range of bespoke silver jewellery crafted by Julian’s partner, Caroline Richardson.
Hart is one of the few remaining traditional handmade silversmiths in the country, besides a few others in Birmingham, Sheffield and London. Their work consists of creating masterpieces of silverware, ranging from domestic cutlery, bowls and tea and coffee services to candlesticks and silver-mounted crystal decanters with necks gracefully entwined with silver snakes. Most of the silverware is designed to be used, with some for presentational purposes.
“Our work is a mixture of worldwide private commissions, reproductions and ecclesiastical silverware, including processional crosses and bread bowls,” says David, who has been creating silverware for over 60 years. “We don’t mass produce or sell in shops.”
In fact, the majority of the private commissions come from word-ofmouth recommendations with no advertising required, and are usually specific requests for one-off items.
temperature before it can be soldered – a tricky business. To ensure that the metal is smooth and no joins can be seen, additional filing and sanding will take place while some edging is applied to finish off the piece and to give it strength.
Once complete, the product is sent to the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office in London for hallmarking. When the purity of the metal is confirmed, ensuring the item’s silver or gold content is genuine, a hallmark is engraved before the product is returned. Most items are made of standard silver (92.5% pure silver), some of Britannia silver (98.5%) and occasionally pure (99%).
“Items are finally given a clean and polish to eliminate any marks or fingerprints,” Derek says. This is sometimes done with a buffing wheel and, afterwards, by hand.
Silversmithing is skilled and time consuming, and each item requires meticulous attention to detail and
artistry that could rarely be made by hands without decades of experience behind them. Some pieces take over three months from approval of design to product completion.
“The more time involved, the higher the cost,” Julian says, “but the products are high quality, good value for money and are long lasting, something unique and memorable.”
The most interesting commissions Julian has undertaken were a model reaper plane for a local RAF base, which sits proudly in the officers’ mess, and an armillary sphere (a model of celestial bodies consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centred on the sun).
William’s most ambitious piece was a crown for the ceremonial boar’s head at Queen’s College, Oxford, incorporating the college’s coat of arms. Other bespoke orders carried out include a holder for a cola can, a holder for an iPhone, and a honey stand for Blenheim Palace!
The tradition of silversmithing in England dates back over 1,000 years when in Saxon times ecclesiastical silver was made for the embellishment of places of worship, such as Glastonbury Abbey. Hallmarking began at the Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1327, and silversmiths in medieval Europe and England formed guilds transmitting their tools and techniques to new generations via the apprentice tradition. Today, it is still a rewarding career. “It’s good fun, every day is different and we make a variety of interesting things,” Julian says.
“It’s nice to work for yourself and I could think of a lot worse things to do,” Derek says. “Making handmade silver requires patience, skill and determination to carry on. I am always thinking in a three-dimensional way and about the tool to make it with.”
Derek liked making things at school, and when Hart advertised at his school for an apprentice, he was offered the job for making the best bowl. Coincidentally, Hart’s founder,
George Henry Hart (born 1882), was also spotted as a talented teenager by C.R. Ashbee, a leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement. George submitted a brass bowl to the Herefordshire Art Society Exhibition in June 1901 at Hitchin Town Hall and won the prize for best ornamental work.
It was judged by Ashbee (an architect and devotee of William Morris), who was so impressed that he invited George (aged 19) to join his Guild of Handicraft Ltd, which he had established in East London in 1888. The Guild’s aim was to revive craftsmanship, which had been in decline since the industrial revolution.
In 1902, to improve the quality of life for his workers, Ashbee moved the Guild – which included around 50 jewellers, enamellers, woodcarvers, cabinetmakers, silversmiths, French polishers and bookbinders – from the East End of London to Chipping Campden. The Guild went into liquidation in 1908, but George, one of the original silversmiths to accompany Ashby, continued the silversmith’s shop independently.
George was one of the few craftsmen who stayed in the town, and became a leading light in the Arts and Crafts movement, not only establishing a family succession, but also continuing the fantastic burst of creativity and idealism which characterised the movement itself. Where blacksmiths and other craft makers ceased trading, Hart is the sole survivor of the Guild, but the association is still a big part of their work.
“Lots of people come to us because of the Guild,” Derek tells me. “It has given us and our creations of silverware a worldwide reputation.”
“We should be proud of Hart’s,” David sums up, “because we have maintained an exceptional skill of fine craftsmanship and passed it down through generations. We make beautiful works of art that are made to last for two to three hundred years.”
In the Guild’s spirit, David still has a passion for teaching the craft and passing on the skills to future generations – evening workshops are available for anyone interested in learning, and visitors are always welcome to come and see the team at work and view the items for sale.
In terms of the future, he remains optimistic. Despite the fall in the demand for and value of silver, he hopes the studio will remain secure and that his son and nephew will keep the business going for the next 50 years. “They are both passionate about it,” David says, “and for that I am very grateful.”
Hart Gold and Silversmith, The Guild of Handicraft, Sheep Street, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire GL55 6DS. 01386 841100; hartsilversmiths.co.uk