Hart of silver

Diana Wright visits a silversmiths in the Cotswolds to see the care that goes into creating its beautiful pieces

Scarcely altered since 1902, Hart Silversmiths is the very embodiment of the kind of traditional workshop you dream of stumbling upon in the honey-hued Cotswold town of Chipping Campden. Tools festoon racks and wooden benches pitted with the marks of decades, while overhead, paper invoices dangle on hooks from low-beamed ceilings. “I think the earliest invoice up there goes back to 1943,” says fourth-generation silversmith William Hart. “The family has been here over 100 years, using the same tools, techniques and traditions that have always been used,” he says. Hart Silversmiths’ workshop is the last operating remnant of the Guild of Handicraft established in 1888 by C R Ashbee, an architect, designer, and a leading light in the Arts & Crafts movement. The Guild aimed to revive the ideals and skills of hand-working craftspeople, which…

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Discover Britain (Digital) - 1 Issue, August - September 2024

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