All the silver presented in the book was produced or hallmarked by three generations of the Courtauld family of goldsmiths. Subsequently the Courtaulds turned to silk-weaving, from which grew the twentieth-century textile firm Courtaulds, now owned, with the silver, by Akso Nobel, who have loaned the silver indefinitely for display.
 
This book accompanies the new display of the Courtauld family silver collection in the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, which opened in June 2003. Chapters on the Courtauld family, making and marketing of silver, silver for the new hot drinks (tea, coffee, chocolate), for candlesticks and correspondence, for dining and display; on early Huguenot silver and the Queen Anne style, Rococo style and Neoclassical style; catalogue of the collection. Helen Braham is Curator of Sculpture and the Decorative Arts at the Courtauld Institute Gallery, London.