Featured A nod to the silver gods...

I would have picked this one up even if it had been silverplate. I love the design.

 

What a great find. As AJ said peacocks might be a sign of royalty . I never saw a peacock the whole time a lived in Libya, but I could well imagine royalty having them as guard birds. They have been used to sound the alarm of unwanted guests. Had three of the darn things for a very short while.

 

Seems 2022 has been a good silver finding year for you. Keep up the good work.

 

Fabulous find @MrNate!
What are the measurements, pretty please?
It looks like a decent sized tray!

 

Thank you Stracci,

The tray is 19 3/4" Long by 13 1/2" Wide

 

OMG. Really.
I have found my share of sterling pieces in the wild, but nuthin' like this!
I bet you couldn't keep a straight face at the cash register!

 

I'd be very careful to be "happy because it's pretty" instead of "happy because you guy seriously blew it and I didn't". Mr Nate probably is too. Maybe they'll make the same mistake again and you do NOT want to clue them in.

 

Good advice,
I’m extra cautious until I’ve left a store. I’m always fearful another customer waiting in line will try to strike up a conversation about what I found. When I’m interacting with the cashier I’m extra courteous, but my one rule is the item stays in my hands. I’ll hold the item at eye level so they can read the price but I don’t let go of it or hand it over to them. I think it sets the tone that I would prefer to be checked out without any small talk.

 

Haha, I'm always biting my lip when paying for a treasure in a thrift store, probably grimacing while trying not to smile!
Never let on!
In one of my favorite thrift stores, they have ziplock bags of jewelry for $5.00. Some dopey customer told them they were giving away gold, (which they were, me being one of the recipients) so now they check it!
Stupid customer ruins it for himself and everybody else!

 

Stupid customer wasn't a gold buyer. I still get giveaways anyway, because I know how to look even if you can't see a mark. OTOH one of my old honey holes now checks everything and the best I can do is metal weight. (sigh) Usually. Scored big on a Warner rhinestone duck the other day.

 

I guess I don't have as educated an eye, but I'm afraid I might have passed on this if I'd seen it. I look for either the marks "sterling", "925", or one of the other numbers indicating purity.

MrNate, was there another mark indicating that this was not plate, besides the "95/RT" "SILVER" stampings?

 

Hey Frank, those are the only marks. I can certainly understand the concern with purchases of these types of items, and it always feels great when we have traditional silver markings. In this case, we know that there are many countries in the world that have varying markings/standards. Here's a few thoughts on why an item like this would have been worth my time regardless of the marks:

1. First thing I noted was the pattern of the tarnish; nice deep/dark tarnish in the cracks and crevices (non-uniform) is always a big positive for me.

2. The flexion of the metal felt correct given the thickness. Not a rigid bend, but also not super bendy (common of quadruple plate items).

3. Weight felt correct, not super heavy given it's dimensions (a giveaway indicator for silverplated brass)

4. No noticeable copper/brass showing, or two tone on the base indicating nickel silver.

5. The most important clue other than the markings; the level of detail of the piece, the tooling marks, the sheer amount of time it would have taken to add the details. This to me, is the secret to finding pieces without marks or odd marks from other parts of the world. If someone is going to spend hours and hours meticulously adding details, they are often doing so so they can be paid a good sum. Not definitive, but a strong indicator that this a piece may be crafted out of silver.

 

even if this one was plate , I'd have spent 3 bucks on it all the same....

no brainer........

no offence Mr N8..... but your superior powers of sniffing out the moon metal....was noticing the detail here....and of course being in the right place at the right time !!!!

 

If I were selling this I'd make sure the auction house had exposure in the UK. Indian silver was white hot over there for a while, probably still is, and that's where the market would be. If this thing's as good as I think it might attract phone bidders.

 

Funny you should mention this.

I was curious about the potential value of the piece at auction, and I found a UK auction house with a good history of prices for similar pieces. I contacted them expecting I might get a quick free auction quote (this is fairly standard with a lot of the U.S. auction houses I've worked with) and I was a bit stunned to get back an email stating that I would have to pay for that service. Needless to say, I won't be working with that auction house.

I certainly understand that no one works for free, but it seems the U.S. auction houses have figured out a simple reality: giving a quick simple auction estimate is very likely to lead to people choosing your auction house to list, and that's where you will make lots of $$. To me, it was immediately off-putting. I may reach out to another UK based auction house, but perhaps it's just a common practice in that region I wasn't accustomed to.

 

If you were in the UK it might be free, but since you're unlikely to be shipping this much silver out of the country to another auction house they figure they'll get some money out of you one way or the other.