Hi, I have this Toronto Silverplate Co pickle castor - should I polish it or leave it as is? To me it I like the dark look, maybe I'm just being lazy. All opinions appreciated! thanks for looking.
I really like that!!! I don't think I would polish it but . . . that may be because I am so put-off by tarted-up old women who are so jarringly ancient looking because they are tarted-up. And your pickle castor appears in the photo to still have a certain "gleam" to its silver surface(s). I think a "bright" polishing might negate the impact of the lovely red glass.
A lot of times the silverplate on holloware pieces such as pickle castors, brides baskets, etc is not as thick as on flatware or sugar and creamers. So when you polish these the wear spots are more noticeable. Me personally, if it were mine, I would polish wear spots or no. No lady serves in tarnished silver. However, if you are selling, you may want to leave it up to the buyer.
I'd leave it alone too. I have a pickle castor with base and lid but no handle that I got cheap a few years ago. I tried polishing the base and lid, but quickly gave up. Now I use it for Qtips.
Hi, Can not go by me, remember I love polishing silver even when the plating is going. In my old farmhouse the door plates and key hole plates were just old iron, I left them alone EXCEPT I used a faint amount of the rub on gold wax just around the keyholes. Everyone who see them says "Oh my those brass plates should be polished they would be gorgeous". They are steel and I save a lot of work and still get the compliments greg
Um. Well. Here's the thing. A lot of stuff was made using "quadruple plate," which, over the course of time, and enough polishes (not apparently,all that many), became items with no plate at all. I rather like the color they became which is just like yours. I would be curious to know if this is one of those...
I have a butter dish and tried polishing it. Alas, as silverthwaite said, the plate was polished off long ago and I would've been better off leaving it with the patina.