The Golden Ball, Williamsburg, Virginia, ca 1970
The card shared this week is an Official Colonial Williamsburg Card produced as a Mirro-Krome Card by H.S. Crocker Co., Inc. of San Francisco, California. H.S. Crocker was an early lithographer and was his company was the first to use offset lithography in printing called photochromes using the name Mirro-Krome. The card is partly an advertisement for the craft shop.
I have visited a few of open air museums: Bygdøy, Oslo, Norway, Frilandmuseet (National Museum of Denmark) near Copenhagen, Denmark, Kirtland, Ohio, Nauvoo, Illinois, Little Norway, Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, and closer to home, the Lewis and Clark Historical Park at Clatsop, Oregon and Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Vancouver, Washington. The outdoor museum at Williamsburg, Virginia is one that I would also like to see. Like the other outdoor museums, this one has docents dressed in period costumes and craftsmen demonstrating how things were made. The Silversmith pictured on the card is working on a bowl or cup. The blurb on the reverse of the card: “At the sign of the Golden Ball, the visitor finds skilled silversmiths fashioning by hand gleaming items of delicate beauty. In this operating shop one also finds a fine collection of eighteenth-century watches, clocks, and jewelry. Open to visitors year round without charge.”
Silversmiths use a variety of skills to make their products such as cutting and sawing shapes from sterling or fine silver sheet metal or even bar stock and hammering to make forms using anvils and stakes. Silver is hammered at room temperature to bend and work the metal. To soften the metal, it is heated. Work-hardened metal that is not annealed or heated occasionally will crack and weaken the end product. Silversmiths also use casting to create shapes like knobs, handles or feet for holloware. These extra pieces are then assembled by soldering and riveting. Traditionally charcoal or coke fired forges and lung-powered blow pipes were used in the annealing process. Laser beam welding is a newer method used today. Silversmiths also work with copper and brass. Paul Revere is a notable American historical silversmith.
For additional information, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamsburg_Virginia
https://www.iexplore.com/destinations/virginia/top-attractions-williamsburg
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