Antique Silver (1959)

The effort of giving back silver it's shiny surface. Charterhouse Street, London. M/S of Laurie Langford, as he reaches over a huge heap of antique silver cups, candle sticks and fitments, all tarnished and dented. He picks out a candelabra and a silver jug. This is the vault of the Silver Galleries in London, where consignments of silver from various estates are brought each week for renovation and repair. M/S as the pieces are put into a container of cyanide liquid, which removes the dirt and grease. M/S of a small buffer with a hand holding a small tureen. M/S of the workshop which is full of very old specialised tools for working on silver. A man holds a silver teapot with a dented spout and he looks for the right tool, and having found it, he puts it into the vice and uses it to hammer out the dent. C/U hammering work on teapot spout. M/S of a man working at a large press, which has an arm on it with a round orange weight on it. He swings it violently into action and ducks to avoid the arm as it flies round, and he catches the arm and expertly swings it back. It presses out a rose bowl, and we see him pull out the little dish from the press. Marilyn Davies is seen hand burnishing a pair of reproduction George II candelabra which she is to take to the White House, USA, sometime in January. M/S of ornate dishes on the benches, with two men working on Sheffield plate dishes. M/S two restored 1805 candelabras, then three silver pieces, a kettle with a burner underneath, an 1856 teapot and a sugar bowl. M/S of a silver teapot, which looks repaired, but it is moved to show that it has been cut in half to be used as a wall decoration. Note: The cameraman's dope sheet mentions Laurie's brother, Barry Langford, who may be one of men seen in the film. The brothers both tour and lecture around the UK and in the USA - funniest question ever asked was by an inmate at a prison - how can we tell silver in the dark! Note: Combined Print is missing. FILM ID:85.16 FOR LICENSING ENQUIRIES VISIT http://www.britishpathe.com/