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 SMP Silver Salon Forums
 Silverplate Forum
 American silverplate .... little value in today's marketplace?
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| Author | Topic: American silverplate .... little value in today's marketplace? |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 10-06-2006 03:35 PM
  
I was contacted by a recent graduate of one of the appraisal study programs. For her first professional appraisal she has taken on a household’s general contents ..... a much larger project then she anticipated. She & I had a long and interesting philosophical discussion about the appraisal business. .... In a followup e-mail she asks the following which I thought I would share with you. quote: IP: Logged |
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vathek Posts: 966 |
posted 10-11-2006 07:54 AM
I would think a late 19c plated tea set would have to be pretty spectacular to be worth more than several hundred, and then the original plating would have to be in pretty good condition. I've seen some interesting sets from this period but the plating is usually pretty worn and replating is expensive and never really looks right. IP: Logged |
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Brent Posts: 1507 |
posted 10-11-2006 08:56 AM
I would disagree that American silverplate has little value in the marketplace, but the pieces that do command top dollar are not all that common. Condition is very important, and it is not all that easy to find great pieces with original plating. Right now, tea sets are not highly sought after; most people who can afford a spectacular plated tea set will opt for a sterling one. However items that are prohibitively expensive or unheard of in sterling, like huge decorative centerpieces, epergnes, fancy butter dishes and tilting water pitchers, are definitely sought after, and not just by collectors. Another area where silverplate outshines sterling is in the area of figural napkin rings, which can command a lot of money for such small items. Anyway, values are relative. You certainly can't say that a piece is of little value just becuase it is plate, just like you can't say that a piece has value because it is sterling. A lot of nondescript sterling tea sets have been scrapped this year, because the metal content has more value than what people are willing to pay for a tea set. Appraised values are always based on what someone will actually pay for an item. A plated piece with a rare or unusual design will easily outsell a piece by the same company, from the same date, that is less appealing. Brent [This message has been edited by Brent (edited 10-12-2006).] IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 10-11-2006 11:22 PM
I keep trying to avoid this thread. But, sigh, here goes. I am astonished that any plated tea set brings $$$$. My own guess of the outside value is about $$$ for a figural one with slight problems. As for original plating, I am not as swept away with that as others. There are to my eye a number of existing platers who do a good job, even equaling the original plating. Which in the case of Tufts or Pairpoint is not difficult. The only tea sets I would get excited about are 1847 First Love and Oneida Coronation, both pre-war. These are very rare and sell well for good money. The post war ones always have uh 'issues' due to poor manufacturing. Tea sets IMHO are a dead product. You need one in your booth. It will draw a crowd who will admire it. And then by something totally different. Tea sets seem to fall into the abstract class of 'the people who don't want one will not buy no matter what you do with the price, the people who do like them already have one'. Another item that always does well is silverplate meant to hold glass, usually Victorian vintage. These bring serious money, in my experience. Particularly from people who have a glass thingy to put into the piece. On the bright side, the low prices mean that more folks can buy silverplate and enjoy silver. Which seems to be the gateway for silver collectors: they start with plate and then move on into sterling and coin. IP: Logged |
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vathek Posts: 966 |
posted 10-12-2006 07:29 AM
Yes, like pickle jars, but the value there is also very dependent on the quality of the glass insert. IP: Logged |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 10-30-2006 01:53 PM
This is a classic example of how the marketplace clouds issues of historical and/or aesthetic significance--it's the price we all pay (figuratively speaking) for living in such an active (not to say hysterial) time in collecting history. Whether or not they do, any museum that has collected "Victorian" silver should, theoretically, be just as interested in Victorian silverplate. Likewise modernist silver and modernist silverplate. Electroplated silver that demonstrates the design ideas of its time, be they florid or streamlined, has tremendous value artistically, even if its value monetarily is zippo. I have not purchased a lot of silverplate for my Museum, but have jumped at those things that I have acquired--relishing their relative low cost as a balm to my stressed out budget. I have gotten very fussy about surface, and the survival of original plated finishes--but then again, if someone were to offer me a jazzy replated piece, and I felt it looked "right" (whatever that might mean to me), I don't think I'd say "no." Case in point: I was just offered an extremely rare plated cruet frame with original glass bottles by a Newark plater named Benjamin Mayo (where is that link referring to him?), and I demurred because the plating was in really bad shape--and there's no way I can deal with that. Its importance was as a rare object, not as a great piece of design. Had it been well replated, I'd probably have decided to go for it, the rarity outweighing the new surface. However, it HAS to be displayable, has to reflect something of the way it was intended to look originally. But I'm not entirely on the same page as most curators. Once, back in my early career, I sent a large Meriden 1876 patented tea and coffee set out for replating, and the whole thing was stolen from the electroplating facility. Probably sitting in a landfill now, after the thieves realized what they'd stolen. Yikes. IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 10-30-2006 02:08 PM
Benjamin J. Mayo IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 10-30-2006 11:47 PM
Why couldn't you deal with the delapidated plating on a cruet set? These are relatively inexpensive to replate. And many living platers do a very fine job. I have never understood the enthusiasm for original plate. The pieces were made so that the silver could be renewed indefinately. When it wore, put on more. That was the original idea. And it does work. BTW, do you have examples of Prestige and Nobility plate in your Newark history section? They were Newark firms, I did a thread on them a while back. IP: Logged |
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venus Posts: 282 |
posted 11-12-2006 04:29 PM
Have a friend who I got started with silver. For starters he would not even look at silver plate! That was then, this is now. While he can well afford sterling, he is now paying attention to the workmanship and often going for the silverplate. He just came back from auction and had loads of silverplate. lol IP: Logged |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 11-13-2006 10:22 PM
Dale--can you point me to the link on the Prestige and Nobility plated goods? I can get a volunteer to do a directory search. There was a lot of plating done in Newark that I've seen virtually nothing of. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 11-13-2006 11:22 PM
Link is here: Two More Newark NJ Silver Companies They did a lot of plate in sort of a French Deco style. Check the well known auction site for Caprice, which was one of the big ones. IP: Logged |
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