During America's Gilded Age, that last quarter of the 19th century, all that glittered,

and there was plenty, wasn't always gold.

No, my friends, it was sometimes silver.

Silver was a precious and sumptuous extravagance and found its way not only into coinage,

but elegant jewelry and accessories.

And most famously, to some perhaps silver made up the beautiful and exquisitely designed

flatware, along with candelabra, etager, apairn, dishes, solvers, servers, and dozens of different utensils for the grand dining tables of the Gilded Age.

Just take spoons, for example, any good Gilded Age grand dinner table could have its jelly spoons,

its orange spoons, sauce spoons, ice cream spoons, pea spoons, horse radish spoons, and caviar spoons,

all arrayed to be admired.

The 19th century in America changed the way silver was designed, how it looked, and how it was

valued. It was the era of great silver makers and designers from New York's great Charles Tiffany

to Providence, Rhode Island's Gorum Silver Manufacturing Company.

My guest today, Ben Miller, in association with the magazine antiques, will take us on a tour

through the 19th century with a silvery point of view and share some fascinating insight into

just what was found on the grand gilded tables of the Gilded Age Elite.

Hello, I'm Carl Raymond, the host of the Gilded Gentleman History podcast where we journey into corners light and dark of America's Guilded Age, France's Belle-Ipuck, and England's

late Victorian and Edwardian eras.

One of my favorite stories to tell of the excess and eccentricity of the Gilded Age is the story of Mamie Fish's defiant Butler.

Socialite Mamie Fish was determined to unseat the Mrs. Astor at the top of the

Guilded Age social heap, and one can debate just how successful

she really was. She had the money, of course, but she also had a wicked sense of fun, and a party

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