ANTIQUE SILVER TANKARDS AND MUGS
Up to the end of the seventeenth century covered tankards and porringers are, I suppose, the two most commonly found pieces of silver. The increasing sophistication of the eighteenth century introduced an ever wider range of table silver together with ali the apparatus for the recently introduced tea, coffee and chocolate. [...]
SILVER SWEET BASKETS AND SUGAR BASKETS
Sweet baskets are like miniature sterling silver cake baskets about five inches across. They reflect all the period styles, from the late English George 11 ones of the so-called cast type, to the boat-shaped French antique ones of the 1790’s. Silver basckets are not like sterling silver boxes and are [...]
SILVER INKSTANDS
The main point about antique sterling silver inkstands is that everything must be marked. The main tray fully, and the separate pieces with the lion passant and possibly silver maker’s mark. Sometimes one can get away with the tops of the bottles not being marked, providing the sockets for the bottles are on inkstands [...]
SILVER SMALLER BOWLS AND SUGAR BOWLS
Small bowls seem to have been mainly for sugar, although some very early ones come from toilet services and were used for powder. Those types which should have covers are worth about half the price if the cover is missing.
The rim foot on the covers of the earlier bowls allowed [...]
SILVER PUNCH BOWLS
Silver punch bowls are comparatively rare objects (presumably because their size and weight make them especially worth melting) are very much sought after. They are very decorative and fill that need for “something to go in the centre of the table”.
In examining a silver punch bowl, the most obvious thing to look for [...]
SILVER SECOND COURSE DISHES, STRAWBERRY OR DESSERT DISHES
These are serving dishes looking exactly like large dinner plates. They are made in all the same patterns, and go from about eleven inches to eighteen inches in diameter. They are always expensive, and their price depends very much on their size - the larger the rarer. Prices [...]