A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with precious metals, usually, to make jewelry, valuable flatware, platters, goblets, decorative and serviceable utensils, as well as ceremonial or religious items. Goldsmiths must be skilled in forming metal through filing, soldering, forging, casting, and polishing metal. Traditionally, these skills are passed along through apprenticeships, however, more recently some schools have begun offering courses in goldsmithing. Today, it is not uncommon for a goldsmith to study other arts in order to reflect the social implications of the products of the trade.
Gold and precious metals have been worked by humans in all cultures where the metals were available, either indigenously or imported, and the history of these activities is extensive. Superbly made objects from the ancient cultures of Europe, Africa, India, Asia, South America, Mesoamerica, and North America grace museums and collections around the world.
In medieval Europe goldsmiths were organized in guilds and were usually one of the most important and wealthy of the guilds in a city. The guild kept records of members and the marks they used on their products. These records are very useful to historians, where they survive. Goldsmiths often acted as bankers, since they dealt in gold and had sufficient security for the safe storage of valuable items. In the Middle Ages, goldsmithing normally included silversmithing as well, but the brass workers and workers in other base metals were normally in a separate guild since the trades were not allowed to overlap. Usually jewelers were goldsmiths.
The printmaking technique of engraving developed among goldsmiths in Germany around 1430, who had long used the technique on their metal pieces. The notable engravers of the 1400s either were goldsmiths, as was Master E. S., or the sons of goldsmiths, such as Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dürer.
A silversmith is a person who works with silver. Silversmiths not only work with silver, but with other metals as well to make jewellery and other items. Silversmiths specialise in the use of silver though, and it is the principal metal with which they work.
Silver is cheaper than gold, and so is very popular with jewellers who are just starting out and cannot afford to make pieces in gold. Silver has also become very fashionable, and is used frequently in more artistic jewellery pieces. Silver also has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal.
There are several different types of silversmiths: Some are involved in the fabrication of the metals, where items are typically cut and then constructed with differing connections, such as soldering or riveting. Others work in wax and then cast their pieces using a process called lost wax casting, where the wax original is evaporated in a burn-out process in a kiln. There are silversmiths who specialize in forging and forming, producing pieces that are typically made from a single piece of metal that has been hammered or formed under the pressure of percussion or squeezing from a press, such as a hydraulic press. There are silversmiths who only make jewelery and there are silversmiths who only make utensils.
Because silver is such a malleable metal, silversmiths have a large range of choices with how they prefer to work the metal.
Traditionally a Silversmith gets its name from the production of "silverware" (cutlery, bowls, plates, cups, candlesticks and such). Only in more recent times has a silversmith expanded to work on jewellery, due to the similarity in techniques.