A key element of the table arts, silverware highlighted developments in customs and lifestyles over the centuries. Solid silver cups, chandeliers, and cutlery became masterpieces of the antique eighteenth- and nineteenth-century silverware. Aside from its traditional use for the table arts, silverware was also used as currency, as well as for making jewellery, and practical and ornamental objects.
However, silver was principally used to create a great variety of tableware items: cutlery, egg cups, cups, serving dishes, wine cups, snuffers, coffeepots, wine coolers, oil and vinegar containers, dredgers, candlesticks, candleholders, and so on. As of the eighteenth century, solid silver was replaced by silver plating to create very large objects.
