Silver tea service set -- metal questions

Ignoramus11713 · 2003-08-03T04:02:46+00:00

Today, I bought the following tea service set at a garage sale: paid $25 for it. The seller told me that it was made of solidsterling silver, bt I did not believe him (and hence got my priceinstead of asking price). I bought it purely because it was lookedgood and I assumed it was made from some cheap metal that was silverplated.Upon getting home however, I tried to make some deep scratches in anunconspicuous place in one piece, and to my surprise, despite making adeep scratch, the metal beneath was still relatively soft and silverylooking. The stamp on the service pieces refers to some silversmith.The set weight about 7 lbs 6 oz, according to my postal scale.I have no intention of selling the set as it would look great in ourhouse.I have two questions: 1. How can I check if it is really silver2. How can I clean the dark silver safely and effectively.Thanksi

Aug 03, 2003 24 Replies

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Paul K. Dickman 22 years ago

First, condition means a lot. Buying sight unseen on ebay leads to reduced value

I repair antique metalwork for a living. I charge $20 to remove a simple dent in a silver plate pot, The dealers bring me 2-3 a week.

Second, sets bring a premium. Orphan pots are bought by college students and young marrieds, trying to decorate.

Sets are bought by someone who is looking for a 25th anniv gift for their cousin Leon.

Here's a generic set, sans tray for $175

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Here's a more collectable set, with tray for $1095 down in DFW

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Back in the Bunker-Hunt days, we trashed tons of this stuff.

This, I fully agree with. A silver teapot is one of the worlds most useless things. You will spend more time cleaning it than using it, but it is an attractive thing, that you would never have thought about buying retail.

You paid as much as you would have for a movie and popcorn. If you only pull it out on thanksgiving, you will have had more enjoyment than it's cost .

Paul K. Dickman

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Kris Baker 22 years ago

Yes, we know that.

The tray isn't right, and neither are the pieces.

Better yet. Trade him a teapot for one of his extra coffee servers.

Kris

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Tony Cooper 22 years ago

Who is "we"? You may, but the owner can't find the silver marks, let alone necessarily know what the trad set is. I just thought I'd mention it.

Tray's too small for a set. Most sets used a rectangular tray for the sets, but not all.

Nah. He can put boiling water in one of the coffee pots and dangle a silver-plate tea infuser in a cup. Much classier than a tea bag. Then, I've got a couple of tea strainers - the kind that fit over cup

- to put the soggy tea in. Think he can be taught to bend his pinky? If he's got any money left, I have some nice sterling sugar cube tongs.

Why is it, by the way, that most restaurants will give you unlimited refills of coffee, but charge you for a second little pot of hot water for tea?

Will you be mother?

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Leo Lichtman 22 years ago

Tony Cooper wrote :We disagree on what is "low-end" ^^^^^^^^^^ This shows that you can cover a very wide range on a logarithmic scale.

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dann mann 22 years ago

Bring your own tea bags

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