Feature Articles

October Issue 2002

USC Has Major Exhibit of Palmetto Silver at McKissick Museum in Columbia, SC

A major exhibition of South Carolina silver crafted during Colonial times through the 20th century will be on view at the USC's McKissick Museum in Columbia, SC, through Dec. 1.

The result of several years of museum research, the USC exhibit, Palmetto Silver: Riches of the South, marks the first time that silver pieces made by craftsmen from every region of the state will be on public display. Previous exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the state have concentrated only on Charleston silver made before the Civil War.

The comprehensive exhibit will feature more than 200 stunning sterling and silver-plated objects loaned from private collections, museums, churches and historic sites throughout the Southeast. Together with text panels, the exhibit will highlight SC's silversmith tradition and its cultural significance.

"Many people are unaware of this important artistic tradition in South Carolina," said Karen Swager, curator of collections for McKissick Museum. "While most historians have thought that silver items used in the South were all imported from New England merchants or England, recent documentation indicates that many highly skilled silversmiths were working in SC during the l8th and 19th centuries."

Objects on display will include military swords and shotguns; articles of daily living, such as walking canes, an ear trumpet, a pair of eyeglasses and a chatelaine; silver pieces for all types of food service, such as coffee pots, trays, saucepans, water pitchers, sauce boats and various eating and serving utensils. It also will feature trophies.

Swager says SC silver is rare, in part because of looting during wars, destruction by fires and earthquakes and because it was often being melted down for quick currency. As a result, citizens today seldom have the opportunity to view examples SC silver.

A primary resource for McKissick's research for and compilation of the exhibit was E. Milton Burton's book, South Carolina Silversmiths 1690 - 1860. First published in 1942, it was the only source to document Southern-made silver. Burton, director of the Charleston Museum from 1931 - 71, featured 320 silversmiths or small firms that worked in SC during the 18th and 19th centuries. An additional 120 artisans who worked in the Palmetto State were added in the 1991 edition of Burton's book, edited by Warren Ripley, as a result of research by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Old Salem, NC.

Swager says locating and identifying South Carolina-made silver is difficult. She says the silversmiths' silver pieces often were unidentified or mis-identified because they generally used only their initials to mark their wares.

Nineteenth-century South Carolina silversmiths and retailers also would stamp silver pieces they imported from outside the state with their own distinguishing mark, further adding to the confusion.

Visitors will see examples of silver from the state's finest silversmiths, including ones by Alexander Young from Camden, Louis and Heloise Boudo and the Mood family from Charleston and T.W. Radcliffe from Columbia.

"We want to show how these silversmiths formed a very fluid community and possessed a great ability to adapt to changing economic conditions," says Swager. "Silversmiths advertised themselves as jewelers, goldsmiths, watchmakers and merchants. In addition to selling their own work, which usually didn't net enough to support their families, they would sell an array of trade goods ranging from furniture to patent medicines. They even diversified their own production to create medical and dental equipment, military apparel and slave tags."

The exhibit also highlights stories of silver owned by South Carolinians and the meanings that silver conveyed, such as wealth, social standing and refined taste. The exhibit explores stories of how families hid their silver from the British during the Revolution and later from the Union soldiers during the Civil War and how silver commemorated special events.

One example involves two silver goblets in the exhibit. The goblets were given by Columbia citizens to U.S. Rep. Preston Brooks of the Edgefield District in 1856 for "his gallant conduct" after Brooks attacked Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner with a cane for Sumner's vitriolic speech against slavery.

With support from the S.C. Humanities Council, McKissick Museum will publish a catalog for the exhibition.

On Oct. 26, the College of Liberal Arts will hold the public symposium, Southern Silver, and feature noted antiques expert Wendell Garrett, senior editor of Antiques magazine, as its annual Townsend Lecturer. The event is free.

For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the museum at 803/777-7251, or on the web at (www.cla.sc.edu/MCKS).

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