OLD SILVER OF QUEBEC

Old silver, like furniture, provided another focal point in Traquair's investigation of old architecture of Quebec. The 640 silver artifacts in the Canadian Architecture Collection attest to the craftsmanship and variety of the silver objects found in both secular and religious buildings photographed by Traquair. A comprehensive analysis of the importance of Traquair's research was written by Professor Robert Derome and is included in Ramsay Traquair and His Successors: A Guide to the Archive / Ramsay Traquair et ses successeurs : guide du fonds on pages 48 to 77 (French version) and on pages 78 to 105 (English version).

A book review of the publication appeared in the JRAIC, March 1941:

"One likes to think of architects writing books on fly fishing and old silver - it shows that there are many-sided people amongst us to leaven the lump of those whose waking thoughts are always of architecture. The Old Silver of Quebec is a book for the collector of silver rather than for the person interested in silver working as a craft or in silver objects for their beauty. The book has a comprehensive list of marks and notes on silver workers, but is disappointing in the number of photographs illustrated (16) and in the absence of critical notes on the work described or illustrated. Professor Traquair might, with his great knowledge of the subject and his fine discriminating taste, have given some guidance to his fellow collectors, many of whom we fear are more concerned with rarity than beauty."