Adding to its already large collection of rare silver, the Fogg Museum has acquired a group of distinguished pieces from English makers of the 17th and 18th centuries. The new pieces have been given as long time loans by Archibald A. Hutchinson who has been one of the chief contributors to the collection. A tea and coffee service has also been presented by Richard Sears which illustrates well the fine types of the late Georgian style.

This silverware has been installed in the English and American gallery, where it is beautifully displayed in a setting of furniture and portraits of its time.

With such a large collection as this on view, the changes in craftsmanship and taste from period to period can easily be traced. This is particularly true because each piece can be definitely assigned to the correct period in which it belongs as a result of research by Fogg workers in the silver marks by which the dates and often the names of the makers are discovered.

By tracing the silverware in this manner, the 17th century is shown to have a far wider variety than its successors. Often there is an almost medieval air to the articles made in this period.

Examples show the many different styles worked out by the silversmiths. There is a superb porringer, or "caudle cup," dated 1600 and 1667. This is richly ornamented with large leaves and flowers, while the handles are made from grotesque heads. All this stands plainly for the pompous style of Charles II.

Next to the porringer is a sugar caster of 1684, quite simple except for some flat, geometric ornament that identifies it with the time and taste of James II.

That each type of piece had a traditional design of its own, based naturally upon the requirements of its use and its making, is clearly brought out by a "lion" tankard, dated 1674, bearing on its side the arms of the city of London. Except for this engraved work, in which the silversmith presumably had no choice, the body of the article is plain.