Who Knew?! | Silver vs. Silver Plate | ANTIQUES ROADSHOW | PBS

Who knew? Heavier doesn’t mean better when it comes to antique silver! Learn more with ANTIQUES ROADSHOW appraiser Sebastian Clarke now.

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[corinneone]

Thank you for these tips. I really appreciate you AR Show.

[joannemuir]

Date of the Salver is 1934 not 1907 as indicated ("Jackson's Silver and Gold Marks" pp 361Table VII). A clear indication of the error is the Silver Jubilee mark which was only used in 1934 and 35 (George V).

[stevemattfis]

Misses the mark so much it is embarrassing.
1 EP is Electroplated Silver
2 EPCS Is electroplated copper silver
3 There is electroplate on lead that is quite heavy and dull in appearance as well is gritty.
4 Electroplate is not the only kind of plating. There is hand rolled layers of silver called Sheffield Silver
5 Anything that holds hot water like Tea pots Coffee pots, Chocolate pots and Water urns have "insulators" to keep from burning your hands.
6 Sterling has so many other marks from so many countries.
7 there is such a thing as 600 silver, 800 silver and Britannia which are mostly silver content 600/1000 grains of silver, 800/1000 silver and 965/1000 Britannia, which have the traits of their own.
8 Sterling can be inserted in things that are sheffield or EP and will show up when you breath out onto the cold surface like where there would be a monogram.
It would have been quick and easy to point these out with a type of each of the others present. Just showing three types leads people to believe there are just a few types when there are about ten types to cover the majority of what exists.
I worked for the man who literally wrote the book on Old silver *Seymour Wyler.
I jumped in because when learning from the authorities (as Wendell Garrett said "There are no experts, there are only authorities) the obligation is to be precise and thorough.

[chuckymcnubbin]

Pretty sure that date letter is 20th century 2nd quarter Sebastian. It's an upper-case letter K meaning it's 1934, not 1907. The assay office mark is not an indication of where the piece was made. It only shows where the piece was assayed. Also, the lion mark is a Passant, not a Rampant. The Rampant lion is a rearing lion. The Passant is 1 paw raised with 3 on the ground. There are two types of lion - passant and guardant. The guardant has a turned head and the passant looks straight ahead. In the case of spoon, ladles, forks and other serving utensils, looking at the piece and testing the weight by hand is not a good determiner. A specific gravity test would be required. The "Monarchy" mark is an optional mark and was once (still is by many) called a "duty" mark. Duty paid ended in 1891 but the monarch mark remained optional and could be applied by request. You missed out pre 1896 silverplated marks which could be (and still are) confused with silver hallmarks. They're known as pseudo hallmarks.

[wilkinson]

Would help if he actually got the English hallmarks right. It’s not 1907 😒😒😒

[craftingwithcarter]

This "expert" clearly knows nothing about silver. The tray was made in 1935, if he couldn't tell by the date letter there was even the jubilee mark to prove it.