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The Economy of Silver Plating: From Old Sheffield Silver Plate to Electroplating

Silver plate is a highly desired and extremely affordable collectible that can enhance your home’s dining room or kitchen’s décor. Silver plate has historically been used as a more economical version of real silver in dining accoutrements such as cutlery, tankards, pitchers, caddies, tea and coffee services and candlesticks. If it was crafted in the more expensive sterling silver you can rest assured it was produced in silver plate.

Although the 19th century saw new methods like electroplating, the earliest kind of silver plate available to consumers was Old Sheffield Plate. Sheffield plate is a layered combination of silver and copper. Found by an accidental overheating by a Sheffield worker, Thomas Boulsover, silver plating was found to be more cost effective and very strong. The sheets of thin layers of silver on the top surface and a thick layers of copper underneath changed the way dining room accessories were manufactured and made available in mass quantities to the common home owner. Around 1820 the invention of German Silver. A metal alloy of copper and nickel and sometimes zinc, was used as a base metal in trays or cylindrical items.

Sheffield’s plating process is not often used today with the newer electroplating being used instead. Old Sheffield is still found in the resale markets of today but it has usually been re-plated because of heavy use or high polishing. There is some Old Sheffield pieces that were special occasion dishes, thus seldom used or handled, that are in such good condition many people assume they are instead electroplated. Because so many reproductions and originals do not bare maker’s marks it is hard for even the experts to identify which they are. Silver-plate may have a maker or company name and include marks that say “A1″ or “quadruple plate”, which refer to the amount of applied silver. Experts use a sort of identification touchstone when looking for a genuine article. Signs of soldering from pre-plated metal sheets or wires rather than construction in base metal and then plated afterwards is a sure sign. Although often hidden by the professional craftsman who made the piece, always look carefully for soldered joints.

Just like your solid wood Amish furniture silver plate needs some basic care. You’re your custom furniture common care tips include using caution in storing silver plated items in high humidity environments.

Tags: collecting silver plate, electroplate, old sheffield, sheffield silver, sheffiels silver plate, silver plate

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 11:56 pm and is filed under Accessories, Metal Ware, The Art of Dining at Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.