| Silver and silver plate make great collections, as pieces are small, easy to store and maintain, they look fantastic on display and in most cases can still be used! collecting silver and silver plate is increasingly popular, as you can start your collection very inexpensively, so if silver and plate are your choice of collectable here are a few pointers that should help get you started!\n\nSilver and silver plate are distinctly different and should not be confused with each other. Most pieces of silver and silver plate carry some form of mark and this can be used to identify and possibly date it. The marks used on silver and silver plate are usually very small and placed in an inconspicuous area of the object. The marks used on silver and silver plate can look very similar if you have limited experience, but it is important that you do not confuse them, as this could lead to you paying an over inflated price for a piece.\n\nRoughly speaking there are three types of silver and plate: \n\n1) Silver also refered to as "sterling silver" or "solid silver".\n\n2) Old Sheffield Plate - this is an early form of plated silver.\n\n3) Silver Plate also known as "electroplated", "silver plated" or "EPNS".\n\n\nSilver\n\nThere is a vast array of marks that silver can carry, depending on when and where it was produced. Silver produced in the UK should carry a set of four or five tiny marks, these will be: the makers mark, the mark of origin, the standard mark, the date letter and in some cases a duty mark or commemorative mark. The silver marks are to numerous to detail here, however, if you want more detailed information on this subject, there is an excellent web site that contains an encyclopedia of silver marks located on our links page. Silver marks on older pieces can get partially or completely rubbed away through polishing, so may not be very visable, however you should cautious about accepting unmarked silver, always use a reputable dealer and seek futher advice if you are not sure.\n\n\nOld Sheffield Plate\n\nOld Sheffield plate is now highly sought after due to it's rareity and age, it was only produced in quantity for around 100 years starting during the 1740's. However, more recent electroplated silver and cheaper low quality imports are often passed off as genuine Old Sheffield Plate. Old Sheffield Plate is the process of fusing a layer of silver on to a layer of copper and the process was discovered by accident by Thomas Boulsover in 1742. The process was an instant success, as it allowed silver smiths to produce pieces that had all the attractiveness of silver at a fraction of the cost. One of the drawbacks of Old Sheffield plate is that the silver wears away to reveal the copper underneath. Old Sheffield Plate became obsolete with the arrival of cheaper and easier process of Electroplating in the 1840's.\n\nIdentifying and accurately dating Old Sheffield Plate is tricky, Old Sheffield plate was not marked with date letters and because the marks used by the silver smiths looked like the solid silver marks, marking Old Sheffield Plate was made illegal in 1773. However, some silver smiths continued to mark their Old Sheffild Plate and in 1784, marks on Old Sheffield Plate were were legalised again. From 1765 to 1825 a crown was used by some silver smiths as a guarantee of quality and from 1820 some producers stamped 'Best Sheffield Heavey Silver Plating' on their Old Sheffield Plate products.\n\n- When buying Old Sheffield plate you should watch out for later pieces being passed of as Old Sheffield Plate.\n\n- A good way of identifing genuine Old Sheffield Plate is it's colour, it has a soft slightly bluish glow to it. \n\n- The old plating process means that hollw pieces will have a seam, where as electorplating is seamless.\n\n- Cheap lower quality French imports of Old Plate have a reddish glow, as the plate is much thinner - these are much less collectable than the genuine Old Sheffiled Plate.\n\n- The words 'Sheffield Plated' on a piece mean that it will have been electroplated and it is NOT Old Sheffield Plate.\n\n\nElectroplated Silver\n\nThe process of electroplating developed in the 1840's and simpley binds a fine layer of silver to the base metal. Again getting an accurate date is not really possible as there are no date letters stamped on the pieces. EPNS or electroplated silver can be identified as it is usually stamped as such, although some times there are no marks. The letters EPNS stand for electroplated nickle silver, and EPNS is the most common stamp found on electroplated silver, but there are many others. Collecting EPNS is can be both inexpensive and rewarding, due to the huge variety of pieces avalible from the 1840's to the present day. You can chose to collect, a type of item: candlesticks, ashtrays, baskets, cutlery, or a style' Art Deco or Art Nouveau EPNS pieces are wondeful and relatively inexpensive. Equally, electroplated silver pieces produced by quality silver smiths are highly sought after and command high prices, these can be identified from the makers mark.\n\n\nPlease note that this information has been obtained from a variety of sources, and it is to the best of our knowledge correct. However, Steptoes Dog does not accept responsibility regarding its accuracey, or any adverse occurances, damage or injury resulting from the use of this information.\n |
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