St. Paul’s Church in Edenton, North Carolina, possesses a silver chalice and paten bearing the inscription: “The Gift of Colonell Edward Mosely for the use [of] the Church in Edenton in the Year 1725.” They show the initials AK and are of American make. George Barton Cutten, author of _The Silversmiths of Virginia_, does not hesitate, therefore, in ascribing them to Alexander Kerr of Williamsburg. Two theories are at hand to explain why these and a few other articles are the only ones still in existence that can be attributed to Williamsburg craftsmen. One is that marauding Union soldiers carried away in their knapsacks all the Williamsburg silver they could lay hands on. This theory is most often advanced south of the Mason and Dixon Line and has some truth in it, to be sure. But not the entire truth, apparently. Cutten declares that there is little silver of southern origin in the northern states today—less than might be expected had there been no Civil War. The other and probably more reasonable explanation is that Williamsburg silversmiths fashioned few pieces of plate of any great size. Silver work in Williamsburg, it appears, was limited mainly to the manufacture of small articles and to the repair of items large and small. [Illustration: _This is a shop where smaller pieces were made. We would refer to it as a jewelry shop. The workmen are shown melting the metal, hammering on an anvil, soldering with a mouth blow pipe, and setting the stones._ DIDEROT.] [Illustration: _This is a shop of a silversmith who made large pieces such as tea sets, trays, and tankards. A workman can be seen pouring the molten silver into the mold. The two men in front of the forge are hammering the cast ingot into a sheet and the three seated workmen are flattening out the forged sheet and hammering it into various shapes._ DIDEROT.] Everything we know of the time and the people reinforces the belief that the planters of Virginia—the only ones who could afford large outlays in silver—bought their plate in London rather than having it made by smiths of the colony. To the older generation of planters England was “home.” They were bound to the mother country by ties of sentiment and culture. Their church was the Church of England, their books and songs were English books and songs, and English-made goods were to them obviously better than the country-made variety. So strong was this preference for wares imported from London that it persisted through the various nonimportation associations and buy-American movements. In Williamsburg, curiously enough, the leading silversmiths seem to have been less enthusiastic “associators” than were tradesmen elsewhere—certainly less enthusiastic than such leaders of the planter group as George Washington.