Description
As early as the third millennium BC silver was already known and crafted into ornaments and decorations. This whitest of metals has since exercised enormous fascination on creative artists, who transformed it into exquisite shapes for royalty, patricians, the famous and the mighty.
We have no evidence to show that silversmiths were at work in Malta before the sixteenth century. With the advent of the Knights of St. John and with architects building a rosary of magnificent churches, silverware in all manners of shape and form came into its own. Palaces, churches, patrician homes, knightly residences and the Holy Infirmary were adorned and endowed. All this helped the trade along as the use of silverware and silver ornaments in elite and ecclesiastical circles became the order of the day.
What has been produced over the centuries from 1530 onwards is now a precious part of Malta’s patrimony. Mention ‘Maltese Silver’ and association with coffee pots, sugar bowls and library lamps is immediately made. For many years Maltese Silver has been sought after in international auction rooms and by collectors.
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