The principal technological advance in eighteenth-century silver production was a process of manufacturing flat sheets of silver by rolling, which eliminated the need for the time-consuming processes of raising and planishing.  Simple vessels, such as this cup, were manufactured more efficiently and inexpensively by cutting the sheet and soldering the seams.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff.  American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.