Welcome to Silver Tidings, the online collector's newsletter of Hand & Hammer Silversmiths. If you're just discovering our sterling silver ornaments, you're in for a treat. In the past 30 years we have created over 550 sterling silver ornaments! We know that there are several of you die-hard collectors out there who have complete sets of our ornaments. We also know that there are those of you that collect one type of ornaments; angels or birds or stars, for example. And there are those of you that have just a few, or just one, of our ornaments, each with its own special memory attached to it.

  I know how important Christmas tree ornaments can be to a family. My own family's tradition of making sterling silver ornaments began with my grandfather, who came from Italy to New York in the early part of the 20th century. Speaking no English, Guitano deMatteo got a job sweeping the floor at Tiffany & Co.; from there he worked his way up in the shop to become a master silversmith before creating his own studio in the 1930's. He would occasionally attach ribbon to small pieces of silver he'd made and hang them on his own Christmas tree. When my father, Bill deMatteo, followed in his father's footsteps, he went to Colonial Williamsburg, where he was Master Silversmith for 25 years. I remember fondly the twisted silver "icicles" he made to give as gifts one year--with those ornaments, a tradition was kept alive.

My plan is to eventually get the pictures of all the ornaments and their numbers on the web site. To do this, I'm going to impose on our good friend and best silver ornament collector, Peggy Hart, to lend me her collection so I can photographall the ornaments. Believe it or not, we don't have one of every ornamentwe've ever made here at Hand & Hammer, but Peggy does! She's a dyed-in-the-woolcollector, there's no doubt about that. In the meantime, I'll tell you about some of our latest projects

When we started Hand & Hammer Silversmiths, one of the first things we made was the #320 Angel Gabriel ornament, from an 18th century folk art drawing. We sold it for many years, and still get the occasional request to make one. In the early days there weren't many people making (or collecting) sterling silver ornaments, but over the years we saw an increase in interest. Soon we were making a dozen different designs a year, with collectors clamboring for more each year. There are very few silver companies making ornaments in the U.S.A. these days, but I'm proud to say Hand & Hammer is still one of them.

 Needless to say, I love designing and making Christmas ornaments. Each design is different, and because they are handmade in sterling silver, they will always be valuable, and they won't break unless you drop one down the garbage disposal. Even then, we can probably fix it! We have lots of new pieces for 2002. This marks the 100th anniversary of two notable figures: Peter Rabbit and the Teddy Bear. To commemorate these events, I've made 100th Peter Rabbit and a 100th Teddy Bear ornaments. Along with the 100th Peter Rabbit is our 2002 Peter Rabbit, which is the twelfth in the dated Beatrix Potter series. There are lots of twelve year old children who have a complete set, thanks to a generous grandmother, I'm sure.

  
You can probably tell that we've got lots to be excited about this year at Hand & Hammer. If you'd like a copy of our catalog, please call us at 1-800-SILVERY and request it. Let me know what you think of my new designs.

Well, I think I've covered it all for now,We can update this website as things happen, so this is the best place tolook for what's new. We love to hear from you, so feel free to e-mail, write or call our toll free number 1-800-SILVERY.

Chip