The sterling alloy was first used for commercial purposes in northern Germany as early as the 12th century when the region was still part of the Holy Roman Empire.

The purity of sterling silver in England was regulated by an official assay at some point before 1158. Still, it was probably handled for centuries earlier, in Saxon times. Since Henry II’s reign, the Royal Mint has held a piece of the sterling silver used as a standard during the Trial of the Pyx.

This stamp was added later, during the reign of Henry III, and reads ENRI. REX (“King Henry”). According to a law passed in 1275, silver coinage should contain 12 troy ounces of silver and 17+3/4 troy ounces of alloy, with a 20-pence-to-the-troy-ounce ratio for each ounce of sterling silver. A millesimal fineness of 926 is roughly equivalent to this.

Sterling silver was used for general goods in Colonial America. Some 500 silversmiths worked in the “New World” between 1634 and 1776, creating everything from buckles to elaborate Rococo coffee pots. Even though silversmiths were familiar with all precious metals in this era, sterling silver remained their primary material of choice.

During this time, the colonies lacked an assay office, so silversmiths in the United States followed the London Goldsmiths Company’s standard: 91.5–92.5 percent by weight silver and 8.5–7.5 wt. percent copper. Colonial silversmiths relied on their status to guarantee the quality and composition of their products by stamping each piece with their own maker’s mark.

Colonial silversmiths adopted many European silversmithing techniques. Traditionally, melting down sterling silver into manageable ingots was the first step in making silver jewelry. Occasionally, they would cast silver into iron or graphite molds to create small components (e.g., the legs of a teapot), but it was rare for an entire piece to be cast.

An ingot is forged into shape by hammering the thinned silver against dies shaped to produce simple forms, such as the end of a spoon’s handle.

The silver was hammered at room temperature, and as with any cold forming process, it hardened and became more challenging to work with.

As an annealing procedure, the silversmith would heat the piece to a dull red and then cool off the piece in water to relieve the stresses in the material. Hammering was the most time-consuming silver manufacturing process, so it accounted for most labor costs. This was followed by a soldering process in which a mixture of 80 percent silver and 20 percent bronze was used to join the individual components to create more elaborate pieces of silverwork. Finally, they would file and polish their work to remove all seams before engraving and stamping the smith’s mark as a final step.

The “Golden Age of American Silver” produced silversmiths like Paul Revere, an American revolutionary. Revere bought and used an English silver rolling mill after the Revolutionary War.

Using a rolling mill, he could roll and sell silver of an appropriate, consistent thickness to other silversmiths, allowing him to increase his production rate. His success was in large part due to the strategic investment he made. While Revere’s hollowware is well-known, he made most of his money from the mill’s low-end products, such as flatware. Silversmithing was no longer regarded as an artistic endeavor when the first Industrial Revolution began.

Sterling silver flatware became the norm in the United States and Europe between 1840 and 1940. There was a substantial spike in the number of silver companies during that time. Between 1870 and 1920, the silver craze reached its zenith. During this time, flatware lines could include as many as 100 different types of pieces.

Sterling silver cutlery fell out of favor around World War II due to a combination of factors. First, the price of labor went up (pieces were all still mostly handmade, with only the basics being done by machine). A ten-course meal requires many servants, which wealthy people can only afford. As a result of these aesthetic shifts, people sought out less complicated dinnerware that was easier to maintain.