Featured 3pc Sterling Silver Tea Set (B'ham 1935)

Purchased this today after considerable ummage-and-aah-age, after walking around the market twice to make up my mind. After deciding that the damage on it (dents, caved in bottoms, requiring HEAVY POLISHING and fixing the woinky lid) were all within my purview of expertise and experience...I bought it.

It was a BIG outlay. But I reckon it's worth the expense. I've pretty much finished fixing it now so I'm posting it here for your delectation and delight:

 

Nice classic set, Shangas!

 

Fingers crossed that I can sell it.

 

If you paid less than the metal value, you will be OK, but these are tricky to sell for more than scrap. They are not antique and are fairly common, but have little present day utility.

In order to command a premium over metal value silver needs a keen collector base, outstanding design, novelty and preferably some modern day utility. I have a stack of silver bought for hoarding but only a modest proportion are thing that are in regular household use or display because most of it I see as simply a store of value for a really disasterous rainy day.
I realise the Australian market may be very different with less material available at higher prices.

Playing 'guess the weight' i'd see that set at about 20 to 22 ounces, so would pay about £200 for it locally.

 

The antiques market in Australia is a bloody rollercoaster at the best of times. And selling silver is a minefield in an earthquake. If you tried to sell silver for weight-value - God. You'd get people chasing after you with pitchforks. I know.

That said - a TEAPOT in silver, a large one (like what I have, or bigger), sells for about $500-$1,000+ here, depending on age and condition. Even a tiny one is about $400.00. Telling me "Oh I wouldn't pay more than X for *whatever*" isn't really applicable. Our local market is so different, and the prices jump up and down so far it's just impossible to make any sort of comparison.

Stuff that sells for next to nothing overseas, sells for thousands of dollars - literally THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS - here in Australia.

I bought the tea-set for resale just because I've had a number of people ask me for silver teapots and tea-sets in the past, but around here they're VERY hard to get for reasonable prices. And I mean VERY hard (see prices mentioned up above, to see why).

THAT SAID - I agree that not all silverware is sellable. I don't buy small stuff these days.

Vestas, thimbles, forks, spoons, knives, jugs, milk-jugs, sugar-bowls etc etc etc etc, napkin rings, and so-on and so-forth...there's just nothing in them.

Like you said - if people can't use it, people won't buy it. And a lot of that stuff just isn't applicable in modern life, so there's no market for it. It doesn't matter how gorgeous it is or how cheap you got it for, or how old it is or nothin'...people won't buy it.

I mean you CAN still try and sell it, sure. But the only people who will buy it are the people who appreciate it for its rarity/age/uniqueness. Other than that - it's just gonna SIT and gather a nice layer of dust.

When I got into selling antiques, I told myself that anything I buy to resell has to...

1). Be cheap (or relatively cheap).
2). Be in good condition (or can be restored to good condition).
3). Be useful, or different.

If the antique you're selling isn't useful, or different - people won't buy it. Bonbon-baskets, silver salt-cellars, silver tongs, silver butter-knives, silver fish-services, silver goblets...Nobody wants that stuff anymore. And if they do, they don't wanna pay lots for it. So if you burned yourself buying it...it's gonna SIT.

After maybe 18-months to 2-years of settling in, I finally figured out what's a wise buy and what isn't. I consider this a decent buy just because I KNOW there are people out there who want this stuff - because they've told me point-blank that they do.

 

Lovely set, Shangas.

My golden rule as well. With me number 3 is usually 'different', because we mostly sell ethnic jewellery. And wearable, instead of useful.

I agree, markets are very different in different places. I have seen some Ozzie antiques prices, wow.
When we lived in Sydney in the 70s, there were hardly any real antiques shops, supply was probably limited, which could still account for the different pricing level. Of course things changed rapidly, with more migrants and more overseas holidays.

Maybe we should set up an antiquers exchange, where we send antiques to Shangas to sell.
And....I can get my hands on Peranakan silver regularly overhere. Many Indonesian Peranakan moved here after Indonesian independence, fearing for the future. Sadly the horrific events in the mid 60s proved them right.

 

If you tried to sell silver for weight-value - God. You'd get people chasing after you with pitchforks

Is this a good thing or a bad thing. It sounds bad, I'd rather they chased me with open wallets.

I know I can get about 97% of spot silver value locally because Birmingham has a Jewellery Quarter and buying price competition is fierce, but I really do not enjoy scrapping stuff that is not damaged. If I decided to sell up I'd take a stall at a decent antiques fair and offer the lot at maybe 10 or 15% over metal value which would be more fun and should see most if not all moved on.

 

Don't we all.

 

Here are some teapots from the rainy day chests. L to R, 860 gram late Victorian, 400 gram Georgian, 680 gram Mid Victorian melon shaped. The victorian ones are in good average condition but the early 19th C. one by Peter and Anne Bateman has had the bright cut engraving almost polished out.
What would the Australian market make of them?

 

Beautiful, af.

 

MY fave is the Bateman middle one...."YUMMMMMY YUMM YUMM", to quote Komo!!

 

I sincerely doubt you'd be able to buy either of those for under $800 minimum here. And that's from someone who's seen a lot of large, antique silver teapots locally. Most of that size and high decoration are reaching $1,000+ around here now. Especially anything Georgian/early Victorian.

 

If I ever come to Australia I will know what to pack in the luggage.

 

I'm suspecting - teapots to sell, and loads of cash stuffed into those teapots to go antiquing

 

Better photograph...



BTW: The interior of the teapot is covered in some black, gunky, crusted scale or residue or deposit of some kind. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it's NAAAASTY.

How best to remove this, without damaging the silver? So far I've tried baking-soda & lemon, hot water, and denture-tablets. They all work to varying degrees, but there's still a LOT to be removed...

 

Leave the crud, it is ancient tea residue and improves the flavour.
Or so I'm told, I never drink the stuff.

 

Too late I've managed to remove about 90% of it. That's about as much as I can do without potentially damaging things, so I'll leave it there.

 

I flipped the set, and doubled my money

 

Yay!