Featured It feels like finding treasure every time

Good Evening Everyone,

I'm fortunate to have a chance to share another special find with you. These types of finds are by far my favorite. To win the prize you have to look for clues, sift through many listings that are worthless, and at the end you can hopefully close the deal. For this find, all those things happened, and I got to open a package. But before I show those photos, let me show you the two original photos I had to work with:



So....we've got a big group of silverware, an 1847 Rogers box, and a certificate for WM Rogers Mfg Co Reinforced Plate AA. Absolute junk. Not worth looking at, not worth asking about, just another listing full of cheap silverplated silverware...Except it's not. Now before you scroll down and see what I got, go back to the original photo, and see if you can find some good clues that this could possibly be a listing worth checking out; what clues do you see?


















I will leave it to our members to post comments if you would like to share any of your observations; I can find 5 different good clues that would (and did) make me inquire about the listing. So, I got MORE than even I expected when the box arrived. The price I paid...was really good I hope you enjoy the photos: this is just under 2,000 grams of sterling silver!

 

That's impressive! I can't imagine the patience it takes go to through all that -- I've tried to do that at thrift stores and the like but i rarely even find that they have silverplate here!

 

What a find!

I don’t collect silver and know very little, but the one thing I saw was that the certificate was for a set - but this wasn’t a set, there are multiple patterns. So the certificate isn’t connected to all the silverware.

 

The color on some of them intrigued me. Im curious,is this solely for scrap or is there something Im not seeing?

 

Whee! The certificate matched the big box, but there was no set in that set. Some of it looked like silver but some I wasn't sure.

at my local thrifts I'm lucky to find cheap Chinese silver plate these days, never mind anything worth buying.

 

those cloth bags would make me look hard !!
nice find N8..

 

Keep these guessing threads coming, Mr. Nate.

So you took a chance just from the first two photos? Was it an online purchase?

I have no idea the 5 clues... helpless here!

Good point from Tanya and others that the paper doesn't match everything since there are a number of patterns. Maybe raises red flag #1. And if the seller included that sheet as one of a total of two photos, that maybe the seller was in the dark about what might be there.

Following this thread.

 

For flatware sets, I’ve had good success in the last year selling online for prices above spot. I only scrap flatware that is really banged up.

 

Hi Lucille, I should have added a few details; on my original post I was inferring that these clues lead me to inquire further. For this listing, I didn’t have to gamble because I asked the seller for a few photos of the back of items in the group and was able to quickly confirm there was sterling. What I was getting at was what were the clues that make it worth my time to ask more questions (and the things people are saying are absolutely good clues). I also have my own method of identifying a sterling pattern, but for this purchase I didn’t need to do that research.

 

Images of the backs help.(LOL) I've found plenty of silverplate in those roll things, so they don't mean much to me. The mixed mushel of patterns was the bigger clue.

 

Ready to hear the clues when the time is right! This exercise is helpful, thanks!

 

The carving set looked very dark and uniform tarnish . One or two of the other knives also tarnished like sterling . The fancier spoons that we could see in the fist pic looked higher quality than plate.

 

Here's the clues I noticed (see picture below for the number of the clue):

Clue #1: There's a few misc. spoons in the lot like this one that scream of sterling silver. My eyes were drawn to this spoon first when I saw the listing, and I knew there was a good chance there was at least some sterling in the group.

Clue #2: Subtle, but very important is these little dainty serving pieces. My experience has been more of the silverplate flatware sets offer more generic/large service pieces, and more of the sterling sets offer very specific/small/unique serving pieces. My eyes were drawn to the nice design of the spaces/holes on these service pieces, indicating this might be a high quality set.

Clue #3: The cloth bags are definitely a clue for me, because I could be looking at two sets, or I could be looking at a set where the original owner ran out of space in the cloth bags and bought a wood case for extra storage. It's also a mix/match set of cloth, so perhaps this person was a collector of more than one set. I even consider it a clue that they actually organized the pieces separately into the cloth (all the salad forks together all the knives together etc), just another indicator that perhaps someone was treating this set with care.

Clue #4: Just look at that soft glowing tone in the bowls of the spoons and the gentle creeping specks of tarnish around the edges. Wavy, glowing, speckles of tarnish, all great signs (oh and take a look at the deep tarnish in the crevices of the handles of those two large serving spoons).

Clue #5: Notice what you don't see here? You don't see the knives...I know that isn't a huge clue, but it's a potential indicator that this wood case was just something extra for storage, and not how the original owner actually wanted to store the set. Just a hint that we can perhaps discredit the fact that it's an 1847 rogers case.



Those were the best clues I could find. My genuine hope is when I find flatware sets they don't end up getting scrapped, here's how the polishing is turning out so far, there's definitely still some beauty in this set that I hope someone finds use for after I'm done with them:

 

Another clue - all those butter knives. Silverplate sets have one, generally. Maybe two but they won't match. This pile had a ton of them, all matching - one per place setting. That almost had to mean sterling.

 

Beautiful as always @MrNate .

 

I sure enjoy your game. I didn't pick up on all the clues but I am getting better. I took a bird watching class one time and now I can not just look at a bird in the same way as before the class. Your little games are a silver class. I thought I was good before spotting sterling but you have taken me to another level. Now at every estate sale and auction I analyze the silver before I pick it up. I will never look at a piece of silver the same again!

 

Great photos too Nate.

 

Fascinating! Thank you for the detailed tutorial!

I never find silver but by chance today at a garage sale I pulled out an older thin large bowl that was quite dented, it was in a pile marked "Silverplate" and was $2. No marks, but it was thin and bendable, so no way silverplate. Took a chance on it feeling the age and weight, it had to be sterling.

I have pretty good glasses (progressives) so can often spot a mark and only when I got home and was rotating it around, found the world's tiniest mark under a bit of tarnish... Rogers Sterling. It's a total melt down because it is dented to beat the band, but should bring $100 as it weights over 5 ounces.

 

Gotta love when that happens! I blind-lucked into a sterling vegetable dish in a pile of silverplate at a rummage sale once. The good part is that I got to the silver pile after spending an hour in the jewelry. How everyone else missed it ...no idea.

 

thanks for taking the time to detail what you saw Mr Nate, it is very helpful Clue #3 - I did wonder about the different bags and if that would mean different patterns/pieces/companies.
I love your after photos, the silver always looks fabulous when you have worked your magic on them, they look brand new
I just bought a silver bowl that was pretty black, you have inspired me to try and polish it up to your standards, it deserves to look fabulous once again.
thanks again for your posts, they are fun and informative