Cork Silver | Eileen Moylan

Cork Silver Part 2: Republican Silver

06.13.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

This is part two of a series on Cork Silver. If you want to read Part 1 click here.

Republican silver is unique to Cork and William Egan and Sons where this collection of silver was produced. Egans had been in business since the 1820’s and had produced many fine examples of hand wrought silver which still adorn churches and houses around the country.

It overcame periods of turbulence in Irish history such as the War of Independence and the burning of Cork city (including Egan’s premises on Patrick Street) and the Irish Civil War. It is this period which led to the creation of what is now referred to as Republican silver.

In 1921 a treaty was signed between Ireland and Britain which brought an end to the War of Independence (1919-21) and established the Irish Free State. This resulted in a Civil War (1922-23) between those who accepted the treaty and the consequent partition of the island and those who rejected the treaty, demanding an all-island Republic.

During the period July- September 1922 the city of Cork was in the hands of anti-treaty forces. The roads and rail system to the city were closed down making it impossible for Egans to send their work to Dublin for hallmarking. In order for them to continue producing silverware the manager of the business Mr. Barry Egan had three special punches made to stamp their work. These stamps consisted of a two masted sailing ship facing left, a single castellated tower (usually stamped twice at either side of the ship) and the third punch was a version of Egan’s makers mark W.E in a oblong. These stamps were used instead of an official hallmark from the Irish Assay office. The idea to produce their own stamps is said to have come from Oliver St John Gogarty. He was a writer and surgeon and also the inspiration for the character Buck Mulligan in Joyce’s Ulysses (for all of you who might have read it). He suggested that Egan’s should create a special category of silver which could be produced under the current conditions.

Between 60 to 80 pieces of silver was stamped with these punches, making them extremely sought after by silver collectors. Once Egans were able to send their work to Dublin for hallmarking these punches were destroyed. These pieces are collectors items not only because of their scares numbers, but also because they remain as a unique memory of a particular episode in Ireland’s turbulent history.

Images from J. Bowen Book, Cork Silver and Gold: Four Centuries of Craftsmanship

Cork Silver Part 1

05.26.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

Premises of William Egan and Sons, 32 Patrick St, Cork

Last month I spoke briefly about Cork Republican silver and promised to come back to the subject. Seeing the queen being presented with a brooch of Cork silver last week reminded me, so I pulled out John Bowen’s book on Cork silver to make sure I had my facts straight.

Since this is such a huge area I’ve split it into two posts, before I go into the period of Republican Silver in the 1920’s I’ll give a brief background into silver in Cork. Like many provincial cities in Ireland, Cork has a great history of silver.

In 1637 under the Royal Charter of Charles I the Company of Goldsmiths of Dublin was established. Under this body hallmarking became compulsory and all precious metal items produced in Ireland were to be sent to the Assay Office in Dublin for hallmarking. If you want to know more about hallmarking you can read my article here.

The Dublin silversmiths complied with the assay office and sent their goods to be hallmarked but most provincial silversmiths ignored the laws. The practical issues when transporting the goods such as robberies and delays rendered the law impossible for most silversmiths around the country. It’s a pity so much silver produced around the country can’t ever be properly traced or dated. Although my sympathy goes out to the rebellious silversmiths. The last thing you want after putting all those hours of making in, is to have the piece lost or delayed. Thankfully swiftpost has overcome the problem of the highway men!

To avoid being fined by the Company of Goldsmiths Dublin the Cork silversmiths did their best to comply to the hallmarking laws. They would try to send some of their wrought silver to Dublin for Assay. In turn the CGD recognised that the Cork silversmiths were policing their own trade and there is no records of a Cork goldsmith being fined in the 18th century for working with below standard silver.

During this time the city of Cork petitioned heavily to have an Assay office established in the city. They watched English provincial towns succeed in establishing their own assay offices and hoped to achieve the same independence. Unfortunately they were unsuccessful in their campaign and so high numbers of provincial silver continued to be sold without an official hallmark.

UCC Mace , part of the UCC Silver Collection — UCC Mace by William Egan and Sons Cork

Cork continued to produce silver but by the 1800’s the trade had largely died out in the city. In 1910 the President of the University College Cork, Sir Bertram Windle, commissioned William Egan and Sons to make a ceremonial silver mace for the college. They had been made a constituent college of the National University of Ireland under the Universities Act of 1908 and Windle wanted the mace to reflect this new status. The only stipulation was that the piece would be made entirely in Cork. Since the decline in skills William Egan had to bring silversmtihs down from Dublin to make the mace. As part of this arrangement he hired a number of local boys from the North Monastery school as apprentices to the silversmiths thus passing these skills onto locals. A condition of their employment was that they would have to attend drawing classes at the School of Art and from this the craft of silversmithing was revived in Cork. Egans continued to produce hand wrought silver items until it closed it’s doors in 1986. The range and quality of the work which was produced by Egans in the twentieth century was remarkable and continues to be much sought after by collectors.

The locals continued to be employed at Egans and through a turbulent period in Irish history they would be responsible for what is now referred to as Republican silver.

Part two coming soon…

Images from J. Bowen Book, Cork Silver and Gold: Four Centuries of Craftsmanship

Tread Softly

04.13.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

Yesterday I was in Cork city for the day and took the opportunity to go to the Crafts Council of Ireland textiles exhibition in the Cork Public Museum. This exhibition has been touring the country since January and has been in Cork since the 4th March.

Before I went up stairs to the show I had a look around the museums permanent exhibition. The exhibition goes through the history of the city and country through different displays and artifacts. They have a great display of Cork silver with lots of pieces of Republican silver. Republican Silver is silver which was produced in 1922 by William Egan and Sons which does not have a full Irish hallmark. During the Civil War there were three months in which all road and rail links to Cork were cut off so Egans were unable to send their work to Dublin for hallmarking. The owner Barry Egan had the work stamped with a punch which had the symbol of a ship and two towers (the Cork Coat of Arms). Once the city reopened the punches were destroyed and only sixty to eighty pieces of Republican silver exist, for this reason it is much sought after by collectors. I’ll write a post about Republican silver some other time, now back to the Cork Museum!
Anyway after seeing Daniel O’ Connell’s coat and Micheal Collins gun and lots of other interesting things I went up stairs to the textiles exhibition.
The exhibition shows the work of seventeen textile artists who have taken their inspiration from the W.B. Yeats poem ‘Cloths of Heaven’. Here’s the poem for any of you who don’t remember it from school.

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

The work was selected by Ann Mulrooney (Curator of the National Craft Gallery) and Angela O’ Kelly (Designer, Jeweller and Curator). The great thing about exhibitions with a theme like this is you can explore each artists interpretation of the poem. Each artist has picked up on something different and interpreted it through a range of media and techniques.There was everything from traditional hand stitched patchwork, to pieces incorporating metal and print.

I had planned to take lots of photos of the exhibition to discuss the work but my camera died without warning. What I couldn’t photograph was Helen O’ Shea’s beautiful works ‘Guide Rope’ and ‘Diving’ which were amazingly intricate. I also missed out on showing you Pascale de Coninck’s ‘ This Little Light of Mine’ with it’s dense and rich colours and catchy title that had me singing the song all the way home! So here’s a few photos I managed to take which should entice you to go along to the show..it’s in Cork until the 30th April.