Featured Anyone Want to Play A Game?

Hi Everyone!

I thought I'd try something different for this post. I continue my passionate quest to find all the silver in the world, and I tried out a new method. I went to a certain site that has online auctions (not ebay) to see if my eyes could lead me to silver like my nose has in the past...(okay, it's always been my eyes) After looking through a good number of listings, I came across this one.

So, here's the game. I call it "can you spot the silver." Here's the information you are armed with:

The listing describes everything in the photo as "Assorted Lot of Silver Plated Dishware" and you have 6 photos to look at to decide whether or not to bid on the items. The six photos are below. If you're up for it, give it a shot, can you correctly guess which items might be silver? More importantly, I'd love to hear your analysis on why you think they might be silver, tell me how you analyze visually!

 

Well, I’m thinking the little candleholders look good for silver, also maybe the tarnished item pictured with them. Plus there’s a really nice stemmed Bon Bon dish on the left in the fifth pic, the lobed dish next to it that looks maybe ok too, also the last pic the little jug/pitcher on the left and the item next to it at the back. Hoping I’ve at least got one right. Colour and fineness on the candleholders is an indication for me. I’m put off the shells because every one I’ve ever picked up was plate.

 

Just to be certain I have this straight - is there sterling among the plated stuff that we are to find?

 

I’m going to look like a fool if it’s all plate.

 

Yes, there's some or something sterling. I don't want to give too much away. PS no one will look like a fool, it's just a guessing game!

 

In the first an third picture I circled the ones I would look at first because they look like stuff I've seen before, I couldn't tell on the second photo what the circled one was in the main photo but from its color and tarnish would be high on my list. As an aside I would request photos of the bases from the person listing the items!

 

Thanks for the circles of which ones you picked! I like your idea about contacting the owner, however in this case the owner is a business, and a business who likes to list sterling items as sterling of course. If I contacted them, and I was correct, the listing would have been removed, and then the actual sterling item/items would have been relisted (no doubt commanding a lot more bidders). Because of this imperfect information, there were only two bids made from the starting price.

 

I would not mention to them why I wanted the photo's, just request them. I've done it before on the Ill Will auctions and scored some nice sterling. most of the people responding to requests like that don't know their rears from a hole in the ground and are just marking time.

 

Not a bad buy either Mr Nate!

 

I know this business very well, and sadly I know exactly what they would do. Another factor, there was only 30 minutes remaining in the auction. I'm not saying your choice is wrong at all, just in my experience it wouldn't have worked. They aren't a very "time responsive" organization either.

 

I'm totally out of my field here, but only the lidded jar (?) with the M on the side looks to me like it has potential. All else, wear, color of tarnish, warn me away, although can't rule out pieces others have noted.

 

I also did that with a large sterling bowl a lady was selling for $50. I didn’t mention anything about why. She wrote me back that she didn’t realize it was actual silver and took down the listing. I should have just trusted my gut and bought it.

 

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Wow, you guys had some awesome guesses. I'm happy to see there's some great eyes for silver among the crowd. I also loved your explanations of why you thought items were silver. When I saw this listing, the first thing that caught my eye was the candlestick holders. Now I know if they are silver, they are almost guaranteed to be weighted so not much silver. But I took a closer look at everything else in the photos too. I thought the little jug might be silver (it isn't), but I was really hoping that the bon bon or compote dish could be real. In my experience, the plated stuff is typically bulky/thick to mimic the real old heavy stuff. More modern silver manufacturers tend to make light/thin silver because they are trying to keep costs down.

The bon bon dish definitely looked thinner/lighter, plus it had the right tone. I've also found that plated items tend to tarnish much differently compared to real silver (of course the heavy plate stuff looks similar too). So in total there were the two candlestick holders and the bon bon dish. The dish is weighted, and made by Frank M Whiting & Company (Tiger Lily pattern). My winning bid was $15; sadly I had to pay another $15 for shipping, but it was fun to sniff some more silver out!

 

I think it was @rhiwfield that did a guessing game with hidden box lot treasures, it was great fun. Thanks for doing this one Mr Nate
My guesses are the candle holders, the little piece next to the holders and the bowl in the back row

 

Cxgirl, great guesses! I was hoping I'd get lucky with another one of the big items, the big bowl is Quadruple Plate by Forbes Silver Co USA

 

Yes, I got one right! I didn't think the bon bon was as it looked too shiny to me, obviously I need to rethink shiny, lol.
I thought maybe the bowl as it looks like it has a gold wash interior.

 

Here's a few pictures of the little jug. I spotted that one too and thought it looked really good.

 

The inside of the bowl says 1863-1913, kind of interesting. What do you think someone used it for? It does appear that it used to have a gold wash on it, but it's been scrubbed off.