Mystery silver-colored tray or dish with worn engraving

Has anyone considered that this might have been resilvered.

I once had a butter dish that was absolutely lovely with birds all over it. My mother took it to a trophy shop who did resilvering (this was back in the late 70s).

Anyway when I got it back it had been ruined. No resist was put on the design, so the design was obliterated with the silver deposit that was applied.
The way your center looks, made me think of my butter dish.

 

Yes, Pat, that's what I said too at #16. It has the look of a swollen face.

 

Sorry Pam, didn't see that you had mentioned re-plating.
I see a left side view of a bird.

 

Pat, what does "resist" mean in relation to re-plating. I haven't heard that term before. All re-plated items look swollen to me, too fat with all the extra silver and most I've found, you can't see the design all that well any more. I think it was a fairly common practice for some folks back when silver was a LOT less expensive.

 

Well, folks .... you've piqued my curiosity about the possibility that it was re-plating causing the smoothness of the design. Sooooo I got out the old Swiss files and found a spot where I wouldn't mind a notch - the underside of the handle. So far - still silver/white metal ... how far will I need to go to find base metal? ... especially considering the area I've chosen wouldn't have the original plating worn off much - if at all. I'll go a little deeper, since this first try was inconclusive ... and yes, I'm keeping in mind that Terry had suggested tin ... which would be a "white metal" through and through ...

 

The base in this case might very well be "nickel silver" or a related alloy, which looks enough like silver to have been used as a substitute all by itself.

 

Right here looks like the original silverplate was lifting up Does your nail snag on it?

Pam, resist would have been a coating to keep the silver from depositing into the grooves.
I think when I took Materials way back in the 70s, we used a wax based solution. But it has been so long I don't remember the details.

Found this on wiki about silver plating

"When plating is not desired on certain areas of the substrate, stop-offs are applied to prevent the bath from coming in contact with the substrate. Typical stop-offs include tape, foil, lacquers, and waxes.[4]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroplating

 

That is part of the "blobby" solder ... easier to see in the last photo in my original post.

 

Update ... it has a thick silver plating over some mystery white metal ... certainly possible that it was re-plated at some point in its life. Will try to find a use for it as part of the cocktails-on-the-patio ritual (once the weather gets warmer)

Thanks to everyone who offered their suggestions of original use and possible composition.