Our 'short videos' have proven wildly popular!
You can enjoy a selection of our short videos by clicking the Pinterest icon placed throughout this website.
The short videos are just a taste of what the full exhibition of that item is like.
Please use the toolbars at the top and bottom of the pages to find topic of interest to you.
On this page, just scroll down to find exhibits that we hope you enjoy!
Thanks for visiting
The American Silver Museum!
Too often we move quickly through a museum
and never enjoy the details of the presented works.
With our online museum, you can linger as
long as you like.
The American Silver Museum:
an online experience.
Our gallery photographs boast some interactive
features. Please click on our gallery photos to enjoy
The American Silver Museum:
an online museum experience!
Only at The American Silver Museum!
Our online format gives you an
opportunity to see the incredible
detail work of 19th century
American mass production silversmiths.
There's much to see here!
Take your time, look around, and learn all there is to know about us!
We hope you enjoy our sites!
Look for the complete catalogue raisonné galleries by using the tool bars at the top and bottom of the page (scroll up or down)!
We are now in the process of creating multiple catalogue raisonné of our galleries and exhibitions.
The video/slideshow catalogue raisonné (pictured here), features highlights of our Repousse and Tea Service exhibitions!
… as always, thanks for visiting The American Silver Museum.
The American Silver Museum
– an online museum experience! (pictured here)
Just click on the button (below) to navigate to our gallery of
catalogues raisonné !
In July of 2019 we expanded to include: The American Silver Museum II www.AmericanSilverMuseum.ORG
This separate site is devoted to the works of James W. Tufts.
The expansion of the ASMgives us more space to show
the exhibits and galleries.
We’re constantly updating our museum!
When you scroll down, you’ll find portals and links to things that are new, and things that you may have forgotten. Our museum is very much like a real museum – every time you visit you’ll see something new.
Included in this gallery are photographs of the artwork in the 1886-87 Meriden Britannia catalogue!
We've devoted an entire page of our website to Tea & Coffee sets. Just click on the button below to navigate directly to that page!
The collection being featured this month, is a private collection of Victorian American silverplate. Visit our 'Galleries' for photos and videos. American Silver Museum: an online museum!
We’re taking a look at what Victorian era artisans achieved with their silver plated canvasses. The value in mass produced, American-made, Victorian era, silver plate, is in the decorations applied to the surfaces that they were given. The designs that were used then, are once again becoming popular. This time, instead of silver canvass, we see the designs being used as tattoo art.
We don’t purchase a Picasso because of the quality of the canvass, we purchase it because of what Picasso applied to the canvass. Although our Victorian silver plating artisans are mostly unknown to us, the value of their work is once again being appreciated.
Thanks for visiting The American Silver Museum!
The American Silver Museum was founded in May 2019.
It is naïve in its concept and execution and by no means pretends (or intends) to be an encyclopedic look at silversmithing in the United States. We quite literally focus our efforts (and our camera) on the artwork being applied to Victorian American canvases. In this case, the canvas is not fabric – it is a canvas made of silver (specifically silver plate).
A museum showcasing blank canvases that Picasso intended to paint upon would have no value. It is the canvases that Picasso executed his work upon that we go to see. In most silver photography, the camera focuses on the totality of the piece: the total teapot, the large tray, the epergne. We ( The American Silver Museum ) see the teapot, tray, and epergne as a canvas. A canvass that American craftsmen used to express themselves, and memorialize the things that fascinated them, amused them, or intrigued them. They applied flowers, bugs, geometric patterns, gods, and goddesses to their canvases – many times, applying all of the above on the same piece.
Our collections did not reveal the artistic treasures that they held, until we began photographing the collection for another project. The camera soon revealed elements that we had never noticed before. We then attempted several printed prototypes of our photographs. Whether we printed and framed them as wall art, or gathered them for publication in a book – the costs to share the exhibit(s) were prohibitive. Gallery exhibitions required too much space, and the liability issues prevented such exhibitions.
There are extraordinary exhibits of priceless sterling silver pieces in museums throughout the world. Rarely will a museum
or museum visitor take anything more than a glance at the object(s) displayed, and in so doing, they’ve not seen (or enjoyed) the craftsmanship and artistry on display on these silver canvasses.
Too often, a museum experience is marred by group tours interfering with our very personal experience of the collections. Many of the world’s finest artworks cannot be enjoyed because of crowds obscuring a clear view of the exhibition. A bricks and mortar museum is often too arduous for an aging museum audience. Younger museum guests would generally rather be anyplace other than the museum. The American Silver Museum hopes that in its online format, its detailed photograph, and the multiple viewing options that we offer, our visitors will linger longer, look more closely, and in so doing have a more pleasurable museum experience.
We hope that the American Silver Museum inspires our visitors to visit museums large and museums small in their towns, cities, states, and countries. We hope to inspire museum curators to open their vaults to the camera lens so that their treasures can be fully photographed and shared with interested parties without huge expense or liability.
Thank you for visiting The American Silver Museum.
Please visit us often!
Tom Scanlon
Founder/Curator
The American Silver Museum
Thank you for visiting The American Silver Museum!
We look forward to announcing exhibitions of our collections in museums throughout North America.
Until then, we are an online museum experience only!
To arrange an exhibit of our collection, please contact us at ThomScan@sbcglobal.net
(NOTE: At this time we cannot offer appraisal services, nor are we adding to our current collections.)
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