Satisfying jobs - add a pair of images

[Yellow Saddle]

@jefmcg would you kindly perform a magnet test on that beautiful tureen of yours? I can imagine the handle being pure silver but the dome isn't shaped like something made from pure silver. It would have been dented and much thicker had it been made from such a soft metal.

 

[Profpointy]

Thanks for that link.

I want to research this a bit. I am skeptical that a fork for instance, made in pure silver, is strong enough. I used to do a bit of silver soldering and although the rods were of an silver alloy, they were certainly soft - too soft for fork tines. That set in your link has a pure silver mass of 3kgs, I think the entire set will weigh much more, indicating some steel in there and more than just the knife blades. I'm mulling this over. Any antique/silverware experts here?

Sterling silver, as used for making stuff out of is 92.5% silver apparently. This is hard/strong enough to make cuttlery, jewellery, coins, teapots etc out of . Silver plate is a much cheaper underneath material with a thin coating of silver - example would be EPNS - electro plated nickel silver. Slightly confusingly the term "plate" can be, and certainly was historically, used to mean actual silver goods (ie 92% stuff), not just what we now mean by silver plate ( thin coating onto something cheaper)

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Sterling silver, as used for making stuff out of is 92.5% silver apparently. This is hard/strong enough to make cuttlery, jewellery, coins, teapots etc out of . Silver plate is a much cheaper underneath material with a thin coating of silver - example would be EPNS - electro plated nickel silver. Slightly confusingly the term "plate" can be, and certainly was historically, used to mean actual silver goods (ie 92% stuff), not just what we now mean by silver plate ( thin coating onto something cheaper)

Aha! Thus "plate" doesn't necessarily denotes electro-plating or hot dip. Do you know if sterling silver is strong enough for fork tines or the slender bit between the handle and the head, whatever that part of a fork's anatomy is called?

 

[Profpointy]

Aha! Thus "plate" doesn't denote electro-plating or hot dip. Do you know if sterling silver is strong enough for fork tines or the slender bit between the handle and the head, whatever that part of a fork's anatomy is called?

"plate" may mean proper solid (well 92%) silver if you see it in a Dickens novel say, but can also now be taken to mean the thin layer of silver by whatever means.

And yes, I believe a silver fork is strong enough for normal use ... else they'd not have made sliver forks !
They even made, make even, silver saucepans as a very very high cost improvement over copper pans, themselves pretty expensive. Silver is the best heat conductor so ideal for making saucepans out of, well ideal in all respects except one I suppose.
Copper is thus 2nd best, and still expensive enough

 

[jefmcg]

@jefmcg would you kindly perform a magnet test on that beautiful tureen of yours?

I will as soon as you tell me where my parents kept their magnets !

Doh! Stuck to the fridge of course. (That was close; I was seriously considering dismantling some old speakers that are destined for the tip.)

Not magnetic

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

[QUOTE 4474783, member: 9609"]Rear Garden

[/QUOTE]

Wow, that's really nice

 

[Profpointy]

I will as soon as you tell me where my parents kept their magnets !

Doh! Stuck to the fridge of course. (That was close; I was seriously considering dismantling some old speakers that are destined for the tip.)

Not magnetic

Despite my being one of those suggesting the magnet it doesn't tell us that much from a negative result since the most likely underlying material for plated silver - is nickel-silver ( an attractive nickel/copper/zinc alloy - not itself containing silver). It does tend to rule out stainless steel as the base as that is still a little bit magnetic, and of course does rule out normal steel.

Archimedes is the only option if there's no hallmark

 

[jefmcg]

It would have been dented and much thicker had it been made from such a soft metal.

It is dented

 

[Globalti]

Some labour I am currently undertaking ....
View attachment 144545 View attachment 144544

(this thing is from a Victorian pub, I think. It's quite large - 46 cm/18" in length)

It looks like the lid off a Victorian chafing dish. Nowadays it would be rectangular and made from stainless steel so I doubt it is anything other than plated.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

It is dented
View attachment 144709

That's not good enough.

C;mon, drill a small hole in the handle (from the bottom after taking it off the dome) and take a magnet to the whole thing.

I have a fancy egg boiler/warmer thing with a decorative swan as the top bit. The lid and bottom were both dome-shaped (like an egg, actually). The adornments were castings like yours but the dome was not - probably spun. One day i noticed that a crack appeared in the rim, at right angles to the rim edge. That's when I suspected it wasn't all silver, but a mixture of silver, silver alloy and some other metal. I can't remember whether I ever did the magnet thing or not. Project Search for the Egg Thing (PSET) underway. If anyone invites me for dinner, dont' feel offended if I check things out with a little magnet.

Edit: I'm now also suspicious about the plating itself. Silver sulphide is black. That in the photo looks more purple, but it could be the colour rendering from the camera/computer. The shone-up bit also looks bluish. You better let us have a closer look before selling it as King Henry's personal meat chafing thing.

 

[Globalti]

Oh, isn't that the same thing? Definitely shaped high to cover turkeys, geese, legs of roos, complete koalas or whatever people ate in those days.

 

[jefmcg]

It looks like the lid off a Victorian chafing dish.

Funny you should mention that...

(yes, I know its not a chafing dish. But cool, huh?)

I trhink it's unlikely to be a chafing dish cover - the dome is a bit too high. I'd say more a dome from a meat server.

Yeah, this is an object that my father knew about. He said meat cover.

whatever people ate in those days

Sheep, mainly. Don't tell Vickster.

 

[Spinney]

I love the juxtaposition in this thread of pics of DIY projects and debates about different types of silver and serving dishes!

On a cycling forum...

 

[winjim]

I've got shed envy, I want to move to the new house and start building.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

I've got shed envy, I want to move to the new house and start building.

I've decided I want a pond now.

Or a well.