Featured This is the way you want to start the weekend

Hi Everyone!

Well.... I certainly wasn't expecting to be posting again this soon, and DEFINITELY not for such a fantastic find. I have been on a hot streak indeed, and I'm just grateful for the opportunities that I have found. Today, once again, I went out on a marathon thrift store hunt. I can't even tell you how many stores I went to, but I went to a lot of the stores I went to during my last post. This time around, the stores that had goodies last time didn't produce much, but one of the other stores coughed up some amazing finds.

The 2nd or 3rd store I visited was one of the ones I happened to find silver in last time, and after sifting through the flatware, I came across a "sneaky" knife with a sterling silver handle. I grabbed a couple other non-silver goodies and continued on my hunt.

Later on tonight, I went back to a store that keeps all of it's silver plated flatware behind the counter. I realized that last time I went there, I didn't do a very diligent search through the plated stuff; this time I decided I would look at it all. BOY was that a good move, I'm not sure if new stuff arrived in the store, or I just overlooked it last time I visited, but I hit the silver jackpot. I started rummaging through the box of flatware, and then I grabbed a set of spoons held together by a rubber band. As I glanced the marks on the back, I see Fapanni & Frugoni 800 SIAP....My blood starts pumping because I know I have something great. I have to keep my cool though, because there's other customers around and the lady that was helping me is standing right next to me at the cash register. I'm sifting through the flatware and I see some marks I'm not familiar with (I posted pictures of those too, if anyone can help me identify that would be great; I'm guessing these might be old plated stuff, but I'd still love to I.D. them) and then I grab another set of spoons held together with a rubber band and those say 800 SIAP also! In the boxes, I found one more smaller spoon with the same marks.

I get through both boxes of flatware and I am all set to check out (that nervous moment) and the cashier asks me "are you looking for silver"?...So I tell her honestly I am, and she wants to know how I know it's real silver....I'm a bit torn here, because I know the thrift store that I hunt at the workers are trained to look for real silver. If they find something made of silver, that item will never make it out to the floor, it just gets listed on their online auction system. While polite (and mostly honest) I tell her that I'm actually not sure if it's real silver, and I will have to check when I get home to be sure (not a lie, but also not revealing what I truly know). As much as I want to be excited and share with her the knowledge I have of silver marks, this is neither the place or the time. The more knowledge that thrift store workers have about silver marks, the lower my odds of finding more in the future. We finish talking and she rings me up at 75 cents per piece!

So, there are lots of photos below. The first photo are all items I know to be either sterling or 80% silver. There's some photos below of items which might just be plated, but I would love if some of the experts on the site could provide some certainty. Thanks in advance, it's really rewarding for me to share my stories here.

 

Here are the photos of flatware I'm not certain about:

 

The rest of the photos:

 

Your seafood forks are silverplated, as is the Dutch souvenir spoon. Can't help you with those knife pictures, though.

 

The 800 SIAP spoons are Italian 800 silver, made by SIAP in Sicily in the 1920s-30s. Here is some info, scroll a bit down the page to the pictures of the silver tray:
http://www.ascasonline.org/newsMARZO58.html

 

Way to go, Mr. Nate! You're obviously developing an eye for the real stuff. Here's hoping your good luck streak continues!

 

Mr. Nate, Thanks for the interesting stories of your recent finds! I don't know much about silver except what Google can bring up, so won't comment on any marks.

 

Back to the knives - there are 2 slightly different ones with different marks, right?

 

Bakersgma,

Thanks for asking again about the knives, yes there are two different makers I'm hoping identify (one I have a name of the maker, but I'm not sure if it's made of silver, and the other one I have a hallmark but I don't know the maker or anything). Last night, LATE into the evening I started looking up the plated stuff, and I found about 5 christofle silver plate spoons. A good number of the other plated stuff I have has a similar style as the christofle spoons, but I couldn't really determine if the hallmark below is christofle or someone else. My initial research shows that christofle flatware is pretty collectible (I really have no clue why...). Here are some better photos of the two knives. I'd be happy to show the christofle stuff if anyone would like to see that also.

Knife #1



Knife #2:

 

Okay, then. Henckels probably only made the blade on knife #1. Without any other marks on the handle (besides the number 575 on the bolster) it's silver plated, at best. Certainly not solid silver.

What you have on knife #2 doesn't look like a "hallmark" but rather a maker's mark, and I'm glad to see a clearer picture, but it isn't ringing any bells. Without an identifiable quality mark for solid silver, I'm leaning toward possibly French or German silver plate, with the number 6 on the other side of the bolster standing for the amount of silver used in the plating. Is that the one with the C&S impression on the blade?

 

The sterling handle knife is Westmorland's 'George & Martha Washington' pattern, introduced in 1940 (The majority of its weight is not silver, the handle is filled, the blade stainless).

The plated (or nickel silver) oyster forks were made by Niagara Falls Silver Co., a division of Oneida, most likely dating to the early 20th century.

The plated 'C&S' knives are German, made by Clarfeld & Springmeyer, and the others, as Bakersgma suggests, are also most likely German, the blades probably the only part made by Henckels.

~Cheryl

 

Cheryl!

That is some amazing information about the knives you found, thank you thank you thank you! This just reminds me that there's always someone who knows more than me, that is wonderful thanks.

 

Quick update, I found a little bit of bonus silver. I didn't go to anymore stores today, but I started going through the other things I purchased. One of the items I bought yesterday was an old Bernina sewing machine. I was cataloguing the accessories, and I came across two thimbles and a ruler that are silver too!

 

I had the same ruler. Only the ornamental bit is sterling. I gave it to a friend at cost; he's a rather good friend and his wife collects sewing stuff.

 

Well done, Mr Nate! I keep little silver bits like those (and tiny pillboxes, belt buckles & the like) in a smallish, glass-topped vitrine on the sofa table in my living room. They're always conversation starters!

 

Thanks SBSVC, and that is a great idea. I definitely need a new way to display some of my items, right now I have a small display case and I'm happy to report I'm running out of room. We don't have too many guests over to our house, but some day when I settle down in one place for a good length of time I'm sure we will. I have to decide how to merge my two collections; I have a nice collection from my hobby metal detecting and my new collection of thrift silver.

 

What a great idea!

 

I like the idea of putting the silver detecting and metal detecting bits together.