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Author	Topic: E P BRASS
bonnie5050 Posts: 17 Registered: Mar 2003	posted 03-28-2003 12:42 PM I have just found a tea set with teapot, covered sugar bowl and creamer that is marked EP BRASS on three legs only. I can't find any other marks. It is quite pretty, was tarnished badly and is quite heavy. Is there any way to tell if it is silverplate over brass or just nickel silver over brass? There are no other marks that I can find. Also, on the handle for the teapot, there are 2 black rings, apparently where the handle was joined with 3 pieces (I think). Thanks for any help. ------------------ IP: Logged
Stephen Posts: 625 Registered: Jan 2003	posted 03-28-2003 03:43 PM Your tea set is brass ("BRASS", the base metal), electro-plated ("EP") with pure ("tarnished") silver. Nickel silver is also used as a base metal for silverplated tea sets, but it would not be plated on brass -- and nickel silver does not tarnish since it has no silver in it. The two black rings on the teapot handle could be insulators, used to keep the handle cool. It sounds like your set may have been made post World War II in the Far East, India, or Continental Europe. Strictly a guess. IP: Logged
bonnie5050 Posts: 17 Registered: Mar 2003	posted 03-28-2003 03:50 PM Thanks for the information. I have been looking at other teapots, trying to find one that looks like it, but it seems to be made a little different than most. For one thing, the spout seems to be more vertical and has a nicer line to it than others which are similar. Anyway, I really like it. One of my daughters does, too. She asked if she could have it someday. ------------------ IP: Logged
Stephen Posts: 625 Registered: Jan 2003	posted 03-29-2003 05:13 PM Here's an interesting ad from an 1890s Ladies Home Journal. It mentions not only plated brass spoons, but steel spoons plated with nickel and then with silver. Spoons were offered as premiums if you subscribed to the magazine. The manufacturer of the spoons is not mentioned, and the spoons were unmarked -- quote: A Special Offer in Silver-Plated Ware No housekeeper can afford to be without a set of Silver-Plated Tableware, if only for "company" use. Read our offers as they follow. This "Bijou" ware is not the very best quality of quadruple plate; however it is not the cheap, miserable trash which is so often offered "Free!!" The goods are of steel, plated first with nickel and then with silver, and a practical test has shown us they will wear for a long time and look remarkably well. We begin to believe that all are not willing to pay for the best goods, even though offered at the lowest possible price, and in offering this line of plated Tableware we submit something which everyone, even the most economical, can afford. Much of the plated ware offered for sale is made of brass. While goods of this character will look better and smoother when first received, the base metal underneath soon shows through the very thin coating of silver with which they are washed, and in a short time the ware is wholly unpresentable and unfit for use, for no one wants to eat with brass forks and spoons. One Dozen "Bijou" Tea-Spoons Sent, postpaid, as a Premium for only 2 Yearly Subscribers at $1.00 each. Price, 75 cents per dozen, postpaid. ... IP: Logged

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