Featured Let's play a game, history revealed, and how to treat silver poorly

Hi everybody!

It's been awhile since I've posted something worthwhile, but no need to wait any longer! I figured it's a good time to once again play a game and test your skills and observation. Here's the photos you have available below, please comment after you've looked at the photos:

1. What do you like (try to be specific to help our newer silver enthusiasts)
2. What looks like junk vs treasure?
3. Without anymore information, would you pull the trigger on this gamble for $70? (assume you aren't really able to get any more information for this game)

I'll leave it up for some time tonight and then post the results of the finds. Hint, one item appears to have some history (which I thought was cool) and I'll also share a lesson on how to treat silver poorly (something none of us want to do). Here's the photos:

 

They look like someones slowly accumulated collections of old spoons. The four pronged fork and the spoons with dead flat handles interest me. The crap photos would probably put off most buyers so I'd take a shot at $70.

 

I don't know anything about silver, but the inside color of the box that stores the goodies looks just like the color that my parents had in their silver chest. I don't have it, my brother does.

 

I'd take the gamble, the spoons on the top, maybe coin silver?

 

The one that looks like a pickle/olive fork is interesting but I like the meat serving fork. I don't know enough about silver so no, I wouldn't pay that much. Probably my loss. So sad.

 

Not a clue, but can I have the one with the shell-like bowl? I just like that sort of thing.

 

Everyone who made guesses so far, those are great observations! Feel free to add more ideas or if some other folks want to give it a whirl. Let's talk specifics...for me, the name of the game is "indicators"..I like cxgirl's guess the best, @cxgirl, what about the top one's looks good to you, or is it just a 'feel' thing for you?

 

The large fork's handle is mostly MOP, not usually used for a meat fork, but not a sin if you do. Those 2 pickle/olive forks are recent. I am only curious to see better pictures of the handle designs on the 2 stacks of teaspoons on the left and to see what is underneath a narrower spoon 4th on the right. But curiosity isn't worth that much. Without more information like marks and maker names, I wouldn't even remotely consider the lot. And FYI - that box is a cheap plywood version and I would not trust the faded fabric to be in good enough shape chemically to keep tarnish off the contents. I see these at $10 or less here. EDIT - I want to make sure you all understand that the $10 is for the box alone not the contents.

 

I think the spoons are maybe treasures. The ones next to the big fork. Just a guess.

 

the worst way to STORE silver cutlery is by wrapping elastic bands around it. Rubber permanently stains/defaces the silver.

 

A great observation...can you think of the worst way to test silver? (cause I sure can after seeing it)...

 

With acid directly applied to the surface, instead of on the stone.

 

Yup, that's pretty bad....How about acid directly applied to the surface after making some conspicuously ugly scrapes?

 

One other thing (barely visible except in one image) the spoon 5th from the left on the upper row seems to have small letters on the handle that are more like a hotel or restaurant name than a personal monogram - I would assume that one is plated.

 

Yup, that too.

 

Awesome guesses for those that had a chance to answer. If anyone else is checking out the post, and I start revealing the details, you are happy to read the earlier part and try to compare your observations with others before reading on. So everyone had great observations all around. I had a few of my own I'll share as it may help someone in the future in this type of situation. Observations from the photos:

-Since I'm scanning through 100's of listings very quickly, I'm usually drawn to one element that gets me looking closer. In this case, the top row caught my eye. It was the tone of the metal, the shapes of the flatware, and the overall look of "flimsy" metal (not a bad thing) that got me to click the listing



So the pictures are blurry and pretty crappy, I get to use that to my advantage against everyone else. That's actually a great sign, as it typically is found with inexperienced sellers (strangely this seller is actually very experienced they just take bad photos). Experienced sellers identify silver, inexperienced sellers sell silver to me...

So once I see something that interests me, I try to gather as much information about the items as possible before asking questions. Ideally, I would like to always make purchases without asking any questions, because time and time again I'm reminded that if you ask too many questions, you don't get to buy the goodies.

In this case, I never asked for additional photos and made the purchase blindly (well, not quite blindly) based on the following positive signs (i'm not claiming this is fool proof, but it's enough for me to take the gamble):

1. Single black spots....what? Take a look at the two areas I've circled:


Now before someone on here gets mad at me, I'm not suggesting this singular black marks only appear on silver, but they definitely occur much more often on silver. In all the items I've collected in my short hunting career, I seem to find coin/sterling pieces with these SUPER STUBBORN black holes of 'oh my god that takes some rubbin to get off' tarnish spots. It's as if the accumulation of copper inside the piece was looking for an escape and found a tiny little hole to start the tarnishing process....Call me crazy, but that's a relevant detail to me.

2. The patterns the patterns the patterns!
Some of you spoke about the forks in the set, and I agree that could be a clue, but not one that I thought of. I'd say I didn't form an opinion either way with these. But what was relevant was the pattern clues. The top row caught my eye because I'm thinking old coin silver, which often comes in these very generic patterns. In my mind, I'm separating modern from potentially really old. And the great combination of a plain pattern is something that looks thin. Think of this: making silverplate is cheap and easy, so why not making it heavy and feel good. But a plain pattern with thin lines says we might have goodies here.

3. The engravings are everywhere!!!
This takes a close peak, but you can see engravings on many of the spoons, and they look different. This is where I started to get pretty excited about the set. Here's what my mind is honing in on as I inspect the photos carefully:



4. Paper thin, and a crack!

This spoon edge looks sooo thin to me, another great clue:



and the most significant clue of all the photos, this bowl is cracked, a silverplated spoon is never going to crack like this:



So hopefully that gives you some insight into the subtle details just below the surface. For anyone wondering why I couldn't get more photos; without revealing too much I figured out before contacting the seller that they own an antique store (to forever remain nameless) so I know anything I ask is quite likely to reveal too much information. I have to rely on the base of knowledge that the tiny details provide me and take the gamble. Luckily I was right! I'll post photos of the goodies later (off to give my kids a bath) but in the meantime, I can tell you one of the spoons is engraved "Lemuel J. Shaw" which is certainly worth a search on Google.

 

Thanks for this Mr Nate, it is fun and you give some great information on what to look for

it was the shape and 'feel thing/has the look' which would have made me roll the dice on them

I only noticed the one black spot, but, lol, that is what I thought when I saw the spot
I never noticed the crack, thanks for tip
off to google Lemuel J Shaw!

 

Here's the photos. PS the last 2 photos show the terrible testing method used on these relics. Sad to say the least...worse is whomever was doing the testing clearly doesn't know how to interpret acid on silver since they're all clearly coin silver. A funny aside: having the initials EPS is pretty confusing when they're placed on coin silver (there's two spoons with EPS initials on N Harding & Co coin spoons)...I'm quite intrigued by the Lemuel Shaw spoon, I would find it difficult to think that this wasn't his, especially considering these items were mailed from the area he resided in. Quite a unique story of his life either way, and pretty cool that his daughter married Herman Melville (Moby Dick author). Here's the photos (the large meat fork has a small sterling cap, not worth the photograph):

 

So, should we assume that the ones not pictured turned out to be plated? Or did you negotiate a deal that left them out? Since we now know that the lot was mailed instead of picked up in person - did the price include shipping - and the box?

 

And have you beaten up the IDIOT who scratch tested the pieces? It's fine on busted stuff headed to the scrap pile, but not on anything you'd want to keep.