Dish Cover - Sterling? Silver

I would not buy this as I did not find any marks but there was a paper tag that reads Cover, Sterlng(no "i" but I assumed they meant sterling). I took my chance and gambled $5.

I will try to clean it a bit to see if something will come up but I doubt there is a mark.
What do you think?
Thanks

 

It appears you have 1/2 of a covered vegetable/serving dish. With the handle removable from the cover, it allows the cover to be used as an additional serving dish. The silver markings were probably on the bottom of the dish that you don't have. As to whether this is sterling or not, you will probably need to test it. The handle doesn't look sterling to me. These serving dishes are usually silver plate.

--- Susan

 

I am almost 99.9% positive its silver plate.

 

Hi,
I have had several that were engagment and wedding presents in 1910/11. They have been made in "hotel" silver also. I had to laugh since I had perhaps a dozen of them and never used them. Two had glass liners. All of mine that were dated had dates of 1905 to 1920. If it is heavy for it's size I would think plate or Hotel silver.
greg

 

It is about a pound and 3 ounces but the weight is not enough to say that something is silver plated or hotel ware. There are heavy and light sterling pieces. Such covered dishes were surely done in sterling by different companies but too bad that most of the time the lids were not marked (I think).
I cleaned it, no markings. I don't think the color itself can give a clue if is plated or solid.

 

I can usually tell the difference between sterling and plate from ten feet away by the color with 99% accuracy.

At least you got the handle. I see 100 of these with no handle for every one I see with one.

 

You can tell the difference on polished pieces too? With tarnih and patina it is more easy to tell but otherwise it depends on the amount of silver used and the mothod of plating. Also the purity and the age of the silver plays a role sometimes.

 

At that weight, and the looks of the surface, I am guessing hotel silver. The design, while handsome, is fairly basic. Were I to buy one of those in solid silver, I'd like it to look a tad more important. (Not glocked up, just a bit impressive.)

 

I am not arguing that this one is solid but the weight and the design of a piece has nothing to do with being sterling or not.
Just a simple example
http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=150722433454

 

Electroplating is done with fine silver, it is a different shade from sterling and other fineness silvers, which are alloys, almost always with copper; the tarnish usually has a different look too. There's really very little doubt, despite the little label, that this is silverplate - and all the pieces would have been marked, the typical place on these convertible dish lids is inside the 'keyhole' and underneath the handle, so they're hidden when the handle is in place...

~Cheryl

 

All the pieces, even the handle? I agree that a lot of times sterling ware made of different pieces have marks on all or most of them but is that always the case?

 

Note the description on the piece you linked says that both pieces are marked as sterling - here's another Gorham piece with pictures showing the marks:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/13120809462...l?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=131208094628&_rdc=1

~Cheryl

 

Being made of solid silver as opposed to plated is a selling feature, you would be hard pressed to find a manufacturer who wouldn't want the consumer to know that all pieces are silver. In countries with strict hallmarking laws, it is a requirement that all separate pieces must be marked.

~Cheryl

 

All the pieces, even the handle? I agree that a lot of times sterling ware made of different pieces have marks on all or most of them but is that always the case?

It certainly is in Britain, but who knows what the more casual US practice may lead to. However, I agree that a large chunk like that would almost certainly be marked. Take a file to a hidden part, that will soon tell you. If it's plated then it's almost worthless anyway. It it's silver a scratch unseen won't hurt the value which without the lower part is more or less scrap metal value.

 

Come now, Af -- if one removes the handle, one has a very pleasant pot-to-put-things-in. A Very Useful thing to have.

 

Hi Terry,
Two reasons why you do not see many handles. First a set of four had only one handle. The engagment/wedding set I had had only one handle but four openings for the handle. They were still in the box unused. One set was for 1909 engagment and 1910 wedding. They were engraved. The second reason they are small enought to get lost in a "junk drawer" and tossed by people who did not know what it was for.
greg

 

I collect silverplate and I have about 9 of those covered pieces. Like was already posted, if your piece was sterling the lid and handle would be marked.

As for tarnish, I have had many sterling pieces in various shades of tarnish. I once found a blackened footed bowl for a buck at a thrift. I saw a faint marking so bought it. When I cleaned it,it was a Mexican made sterling fruit bowl,so tarnish,coloring can't always determine the metal as being plated vs sterling

 

A Very Useful thing to have

if you happen to be a stuffed donkey..........

 

EE! Yore right, Af!