Cache of Wade Hampton antique silver comes home
Contributed by the S.C. Archives and
History Foundation

Without tossing a silver coin, collectors, appraisers, scholars, conscientious alter guild members, and others captivated by silver are coming to this weekend's silver symposium for a win-win event.

Heads: from the region's most revered silver experts, patrons will learn more about the precious metal that was a hallmark of prosperity during South Carolina's colonial era.

Tails: they also will be seeing, for the first time in more than two generations, a cache of Wade Hampton silver that left the state, then the country, with an adventuring Hampton heir. The collection of silver had disappeared from the antiques radar screen until its recent rediscovery.

An astute South Carolina collector had a chance encounter with the heirs and heard the silver's saga while he and his late wife were on a Pacific island port of call several years ago. Since then Frank Fletcher, a resident of the South Carolina coast, has been relentless in bringing the cache of silver home to South Carolina.

Last year Fletcher conveyed what he had discovered to Walker Clarke, president of the South Carolina Archives and History Foundation, whose board moved swiftly to meet the owner's criteria so the silver could be brought back to the city where it once graced dining and tea tables at which aristocracy supped and sipped.

To afford 21st century collectors an opportunity to see what has been missing all these years from the decorative arts landscape, the foundation has partnered with the South Carolina Silver Society, the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, and Historic Columbia Foundation in hosting an antiques silver symposium.

For starters, participants in A Hampton Legacy: An Antique Silver Symposium will be able to have a piece from their personal collections appraised by the team of experts on hand.

Speakers for the event are highly revered in the field. Dr. William Hood Jr. of Alabama is author of Tiffany Silver Flatware, 1845-1905. Jeannine Disviscour, deputy director for collections at the Maryland Historical Society, is a recognized expert on Kirk silver, one of the hallmarks found on pieces of the Hampton silver.

"They are both greatly knowledgeable and able presenters," said Durham, a founder of the South Carolina Silver Society and a board member of the South Carolina Archives & History Foundation.

The program also will feature presentations by Al and Charlotte Crabtree, Dr. Ron Bridwell, and Grahame Long with contributions by Dr. Rodger Stroup, executive director of SCDAH and John Sherrer of HCF. The appraisal team will consist of John Bankson, Joann Morton, Bart Mullin along with Durham and Stroup.

For final registration information regarding A Hampton Legacy: An Antique Silver Symposium call 803-896-5729.