United Kingdom · Silversmithing; Metal craft; Sheffield heritage
Old Sheffield Plate — Fused Silversmithing
The Old Sheffield Plate tradition — the technique of fusing a sheet of silver to a block of copper and rolling them together to produce a silver-surfaced copper sheet used for hollowware, candlesticks, and flatware. Invented by Thomas Boulsover in Sheffield around 1742, Old Sheffield Plate was replaced commercially by electroplating from the 1840s but has been revived as a heritage craft for specific collector and restoration commissions. The Sheffield plater reads the correct fusion quality through a transmitted-light edge assessment of the rolled bimetal sheet.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Not listed; Sheffield silversmithing on the UK national heritage inventory
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