As we get into the holidays, my thoughts turn to silver. What is a festive table without a pair of silver candlesticks, assorted silver nut bowls and maybe a table bowl filled with mercury glass balls? Silver has been and always will be an elegant sign of living. The other week I was looking at a sales catalog from a local auction. They were featuring items from what had to have been a main line Philadelphia home. The silver in particular was perfect. Each generation had contributed to the stash. The newest were the Sterling Revere bowls and divided vegetable dish that were from the late 1960s or early 1970s. They were made by Gorham and retailed by Caldwells. Flowing back in time, there was a magnificent set of Kirk repousse silver. I love Kirk, and this was so classic. My daughter and I talked about how Kirk repousse remains the silver that all young southern matrons want to have. It is heavy, beautiful and classic in every way. That, along with assorted silver nut bowls, represented another generation back in time. Then there were the heavy bowls bearing the retailer mark of Bailey, Banks and Biddle. While not the manufacturer, BB&B is always the mark of quality silver goods. Mixed in with these was a smattering of 18th-century Georgian silver from England. Not family heirlooms, but reflecting moneyed families in the 1930s who wanted a little gentility and purchased English armorial silver. Finally, there was a mixed set of coin silver by R. and W. Wilson from Philadelphia. Dating from the 19th century, here were the heirloom pieces. Not of great artistic or intrinsic value but still a reminder to the family of their local roots. Silver has gotten a really bad reputation in the last decade. No one wants it or cares for it any longer. Interestingly, I was going to do a program at the museum a few months ago about a piece of very fine Baltimore silver in our collections. As I was prepping the silver for the program, I drew a crowd of young millennial and Gen Z staff members who wanted to know all about silver. Hmmm, unwanted and lacking interest, not hardly. The challenge with collecting silver for me is the equation of silver content and its market value compared to the artistic value of the piece. Meaning a silver bowl artistically is perhaps $250, but the silver bullion value adds another $200, and suddenly the bowl is expensive. The flip side is that I have purchased great silver from scrappers who only care about the melt. When I get invited to a wedding today, I always try and give a piece of silver as the gift. Sure, they will get plenty of sheets and an espresso maker, but the silver will last far longer. Some young couples love the silver and talk about using it all the time. Others are pretty silent, and I suspect the silver is hidden in a closet. But in the end, I am willing to gamble that sooner or later someone will come to appreciate it. Born to collect should be the motto of Peter Seiberts family. Raised in Central Pennsylvania, Seibert has been collecting and writing about antiques for more than three decades. By day, he is a museum director and has worked in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Virginia and New Mexico. In addition, he advises and consults with auction houses throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, particularly about American furniture and decorative arts. Seiberts writings include books on photography, American fraternal societies and paintings. He and his family are restoring a 1905 arts and crafts house filled with years worth of antique treasures found in shops, co-ops and at auctions.