Featured Great free site for ID-ing Oneida patterns --you send a picture

Recently purchased a 100 pc set of silverplate Oneida flatware for a good price. Some of the larger sets do pretty well on Ebay, purchased this for resale.

Figured I could match the pattern quickly, it has a small rose, so searched title and description under "Oneida Community Rose", thinking someone might mention "rose" in the description, while not in the title. Unbelievably got 800 matches, and after scanning 600, didn't find it. Also checked Replacements for "Oneida Community"... no less than 101 pages.

A search on Google showed an Oneida site that will ID your pattern if you send a photo. Got a response in less than 2 hours! If you ever need to ID Oneida, here is a good resource.

https://www.oneida.com/identify-your-pattern

Learned that mine is called: Beethoven, 1971, Betty Crocker

 

You didn't think to ask me?

 

I did think of it -- of course. But here was my thought process. Purchased it at a thrift (side note, finally...something at my GW --I think in the back they gave up searching, try searching "Oneida Community" over 20K on Ebay...)

But still figured I could quickly find it with that rose on there once home, so took a look myself. After I had trouble (burning out after scanning 600 auctions, and that with the piece in my hand, didn't want to subject that to anyone, lol!) decided to search a bit more and in just 2 minutes, found that site.

Full disclosure, was thinking this was stainless at first.

Bakers, would you have known it easily? Curious!

 

Actually = yes. It's on the first page of the Oneida Community silverplate patterns on Sterling Flatware Fashions ( which also lists silver plate) It's much easier to find when you have a picture of the back stamp as well as the front.

Whoops! Forgot to attach the page, so you can see how few pages you'd need to scroll through.

https://www.sterlingflatwarefashions.com/SPPatterns/Oneida1.html

 

Impressive! Should have come here first, lol!

 

As a side note, the site says 2-3 weeks for a response, but I heard back almost immediately. It is run by Oneida, so free.

If we ever have a real Oneida stumper and/or if Bakers is on vacation, might come in handy.

 

BTW - Oneida Community is always silver plated (unless it is stamped Sterling - there are just a few) or Stainless. Knowing some tips like these really help cut down on huge Google searches.

 

2=3 weeks???? That's crazy!

 

I LOVE the Flatware Fashions web site! Hope it always prevails. Not only for IDs but also for all the interesting info about what antique pieces were used for (how I found my Bird Fork, as in passenger pigeons, I suppose) and the old catalog pages.

But thanks for the site Luc.b, it should be handy for stainless as well as plate. I have a heck of a time with stainless patterns.

 

My go to source for Silverplate Flatware is a book called "Silverplated Flatware" Revised Fourth Edition by Tere Hagan. It is extremely easy and quick to use and I'm successful most of the time. It is out of print, but you can buy on Amazon. ISBN number is 0-89145-428-4

 

Great info for folks, and I agree 100% with Bakersgma, if it doesn't say sterling, and it's made my Oneida Community, it's going to be plated.

Oneida is one of my favorite "sleeper" makers for sterling. I've purchased quite a few complete flatware sets of Oneida made in sterling. My theory is the general public recognizes Reed and Barton, Wallace, Lunt, Alvin etc. as makers of sterling flatware. Conversely, Oneida is so synonymous with silverplate that perhaps the general public attributes the maker as such. The website Bakersgma linked is a wonderful resource for Oneida sterling patterns, there's 41 different sterling Oneida patterns shown on the site.

While it is less common to see "community" on Oneida's sterling sets, it's not unheard of. Here's a few examples for reference:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-ON...rn-BABY-FORK-No-Monogram-/123675248373?_ul=IL

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Heavy-Ster...nity-Morning-Star-Serving-Spoon-/153803646189

https://www.etsy.com/nz/listing/531...how_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details