Silver

Silver is our most used metal. The soft, white, highly reflective element can be found in its pure form in the Earth, as an alloy with other metals, and as ore in other minerals.

Silver has been valued as a precious metal since antiquity, and evidence of humanity’s attempts to refine it date back to the 4th millennium BC.

As one of the first metals (alongside copper and gold) to be used as “money” as opposed to trade of goods, it has played a pivotal role in a myriad of cultures and sometimes commanded a higher value than gold.

It is little wonder that with silver’s widespread use throughout the world, it has acquired some very special meanings that go far beyond money.

In North African Jewish traditions such as Malki’s, silversmithing is strongly associated with protection and empowerment.

In her book A History of Art in Africa, Africanist and art historian Monica Blackmun Visonà explains that Jews possess ancient spiritual links with other African cultures, evident in that “most types of jewelry in the Maghreb were made by Jewish silversmiths, or by endogamous groups of Jewish origin.”

This notably includes indigenous African cultures such as the Berbers, who believed Jews “to have the occult abilities necessary to manipulate baraka [supernatural power] through silversmithing.”

We predominantly work with three types of silver: sterling silver (925), pure silver (999), and what is sometimes referred to as “ancient silver” (i.e. silver alloys with varying ratios between silver and other metals).