Silver Page Clip
A silver page clip is a small desk accessory designed to hold your reading place.
What silver page clips are
A silver page clip is typically encountered in the form of a bookmark, designed to slide onto or grip the leaves of a book. These pieces emerge from the Victorian, Edwardian, and Art Deco periods, spanning the decades around the turn of the twentieth century.
The items listed on this page take specific novelty forms, most notably miniature trowels and a sword shape. Makers of the era also paired sterling silver with materials such as mother of pearl and casein to create varied reading accessories.
How they were made
Silversmiths utilised sterling silver and standard silver, shaping the metal into distinct silhouettes like trowels and swords. These metal components often received hand engraving to add surface pattern and detail.
Makers combined silver with organic elements, integrating mother of pearl blades and casein handles into the construction. Birmingham assay offices stamped many of these pieces, recording their metallic standard and year of production.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for silver page clip, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Someone decided that reading the morning post required a miniature silver trowel to keep their place.
What varies in quality
Quality rests in the distinctiveness of the form, separating standard clips from novelty designs like architectural trowels or edged blades. Crispness in the engraved decoration dictates how finely a piece holds its decorative intent.
The integration of secondary materials such as mother of pearl influences the overall finish of the object. Maker attribution also plays a role, with established workshops demonstrating greater precision in their metalwork.
Charles Horner·Crisford and Norris·Adie and Lovekin
The Silver Page Clip Glossary
- Sterling silver
- A silver alloy containing 92.5 percent pure silver by mass, forming the primary metal used in these desk accessories.
- Mother of pearl
- An iridescent internal layer of a shell, utilised by makers for handles or blades on bookmark designs.
- Casein
- A synthetic protein plastic derived from milk, employed in period pieces as an alternative material for handles.
- Novelty bookmark
- A functional reading accessory shaped to resemble a specific object, such as a garden trowel or sword.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a silver page clip?
A silver page clip is a small reading accessory designed to hold pages in place within a book. These items frequently double as decorative bookmarks.
Most examples date from the Victorian, Edwardian, and Art Deco eras. They combine functional utility with the novelty designs popular among period silversmiths.
How were these clips used?
Readers placed them onto the leaves of a book to mark a specific page without damaging the paper. Their compact size made them portable desk accessories.
Many incorporated gripping mechanisms or flat stems suited to sliding between bound pages. Novelty shapes added a decorative element to daily reading habits.
What materials are used?
Makers relied primarily on sterling silver and standard silver for the structure and decoration of the clips. Metal surfaces often featured hand engraving.
Secondary materials appear frequently in the listings. Workshops combined silver with mother of pearl and casein to construct contrasting handles and blades.
How do I identify the period?
Dating relies on assay marks, stylistic cues, and recorded hallmarks from centres like Birmingham. Victorian pieces often display ornate surface engraving.
Edwardian and later twentieth-century examples shift towards cleaner lines and specific novelty forms. The presence of makers' marks helps narrow the date of manufacture.