On 12 December 2009, the exhibition “Silversmiths of Guimarães serving God and Men” was inaugurated.
For the first time, a significant set of silverware with the mark of Guimarães, from the 18th and the 19th centuries, was gathered in the same space.
The 97 pieces on display come from 16 different places and they were lent by 43 distinguished owners. The great majority of the pieces isn’t usually accessible to the public, so, the exhibition is a unique occasion to appreciate the aesthetic and technical quality of ancient silverware from Guimarães.
 This exhibition has been receiving  many visitors, which justifies the organization of guided visits. The next visit will be next 27 February, Saturday, by 3.30 p.m..
Other visits are scheduled to: Sunday, 28 March and Saturday, 24 April.
These guided visits are free and at the end a catalogue will be assorted among the participants.

1st Visit
Month January
Day 24
Day of the week Sunday
Time 3.30 p.m.

2nd Visit
Month February
Day 27
Day of the week Saturday
Time 3.30 p.m.

3rd Visit
Month March
Day 28
Day of the week Sunday
Time 3.30 p.m.

4th Visit
Month April
Day 24
Day of the week Saturday
Time 3.30 p.m.


To know more

This exhibition is composed of 97 silver pieces produced in Guimarães in the 18th and 19th centuries, which, for the first time, are all gathered in the same space. They belong to churches, museums, houses-museum, foundations, charity institutions, families, collectors and antiquaries, and, normally, they are geographically scattered from Alto Trás-os-Montes to Baixo Alentejo. Most of them aren’t usually accessible to the public.
As the title suggests, the exhibition comprises two sections. In the first – The Sacred Luxury – the church plate is shown; in the second – Intimacy and refinement -, the silverware of domestic use can be admired. Each section is, then, organized in many groups, according to the function of the pieces on display.
The visitors are invited to mentally place each object in its respective religious or domestic environment and to find out the evolution of taste and of trends in the art of silverware.
 
The Sacred Luxury

The gold and silversmiths of Guimarães were associated in a single corporation, simultaneously professional, religious and of mutual assistance, whose patron saint was Saint Eligius.
Executing the chalices, the tabernacle vases, the monstrances and the remaining pieces destined to the divine cult was a reason of pride to gold and silversmiths. They worked to serve God, choosing noble metals, chasing or engraving the sacred symbols, searching in the smallest details the technical perfection. Each piece coming out of their hands constituted a hymn of praise and a form of prayer.
The local Church was the main buyer of the silverware from Guimarães, through the Collegiate Church of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira, the convents and the diverse fraternities. The itinerant merchant gold or silversmiths also sold them from the North to the South, in the interior of the country.

 
Intimacy and Refinement

The secular silverware produced in Guimarães consisted, mainly, of pieces to be used in the noble or bourgeois families’ daily life, such as candlesticks and other illuminations, small salvers, cutlery and toothpick holders. The sets for writing (“desks” or “office sets”) appeared in the houses of clergy or academics. As for the teapots and coffee pots, the table services of tea or coffee, the ostentatious salvers, the complete cutlery sets in cases, the ewers and the “hand basins” or the “shaving bowls”, they were of a more restrict production and circulation, and indicated the high social position of their owners.
The portrait of José Freitas do Amaral (1748-1813), owner of the House of Sezim, is a symbol of all those that ordered and used the secular silverware on display. And through the “G”, which indicates the production centre of Guimarães, and the master silversmiths’ marks, one remembers the tireless work of these artists, serving God and men.