KANSAS CITY, MO.- The craft of the American silversmith is explored in a new exhibition at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Early American Silver from the Cahn Collection will be displayed in six locations throughout the museum beginning April 20. These exceptional works from the St. Louis collection of Paul and Elissa Cahn will be on view through Nov. 3 in American, European and Contemporary Galleries so they can be seen in context with the time period they originated.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the museum to display a different craft, since the museum doesn’t own any American Colonial silver,” said Catherine L. Futter, The Helen Jane and R. Hugh "Pat" Uhlmann Curator of Decorative Arts. “I wanted to illustrate that the materials and techniques for silver haven’t changed in 300 years, so I invited two local silver artists to incorporate their work into the display of 18th- century silver.”

Silver objects made by Kansas City artists Robyn Nichols and Erica Voetsch will be displayed with the Cahn silver. Two video installations allow visitors to better understand the artists’ inspirations as well as the history and care of silver and the timelessness of the silver-making process.

“I would like to educate children about early American life and silver is one of the avenues that can transport them to the past,” said Paul Cahn. “The Nelson-Atkins has great early American furniture and the people of western Missouri should know how the other arts, such as silver, played a role in colonial life.”

The Cahn Collection that will be on view consists of more than 60 pieces of Colonial American late 17th century to the mid-18th century silver. While many of the pieces have a close affiliation with European silver, both in design and technique, American silver tends to be more restrained, with less decoration than its European antecedents. For instance, there are very few American silver candlesticks. Candlesticks were usually cast in one piece and required a great amount of silver. The candles were also expensive. Therefore, very few are made for American consumers.

The grandson of a silversmith, Paul Cahn’s boyhood collections included stamps and marbles. As an adult, he acquired his silver collection over a period of 50 years. He aggressively built a prestigious collection that has been featured in many exhibitions.

“The vast majority of the population collects something,” said Futter. “We have an intrinsic psychological need to put things together to better understand our world. This exhibition is about more than silver–it also speaks to basic human nature.”

The Cahn collection features examples of the finest silver used in the homes of wealthy 18th-century American merchants and their families. The objects, including tankards, tea services and even shoe buckles, were considered precious when they were made. Their value, both in the expensive material and craftsmanship, continued through the centuries. Many of the works in the Cahn collection are inscribed by the family members who inherited them—illustrating how silver has always been considered an heirloom, passed from one generation to the next.

For the Kansas City exhibition, curator Futter wanted to connect the works with different themes. One of the installations places silver in the context of the hall from the 1750s Robert Hooper house from Danvers, Massachusetts, located in the American galleries. Hooper was a Boston area merchant who could have owned the type of tankards and cream boats that are displayed in the room. Yet, Hooper, unlike the Boston silversmiths Paul Revere and John Coburn, was not supportive of the American Revolution. Hooper remained a Loyalist to the British crown, with the result that he was destitute by the 1780s. In a nearby gallery, silver shoe buckles, tankards and even a pipe lighter that relate to the life of American gentlemen are placed close to portraits of some very wealthy colonists. Silver from the Cahn collection is also incorporated into the galleries where European paintings and silver are shown, inviting viewers to make connections and comparisons.

The most unusual installation is in the Bloch Building, where Futter has mixed the work of Nichols and Voetsch with the 18th-century American silver. Silver has not changed in the way artists work with it or the way owners value it. Futter wanted to illustrate that Nichols and Voetsch use the same techniques that the colonial silversmiths used two centuries earlier. It is simply the style that has changed and some of the designs. Nichols fabricates intricate silver implements, many of the same types that would have been used on the colonial tea table, but in a contemporary style incorporating wildly swirling tendrils of morning glories. Voetsch fashions fascinators, or intricate silver headpieces that frame a woman’s face, in a very modern style. The relationship between the 18th- and 21st-century silver indicates that this alluring material continues to fascinate both artists and owners through its intricate designs and glittering surfaces.