My Amazing Attic Find- Huge silver platter!!!

[AHappychick]

so what does that mean exactly. ugg I am so tired my eyes are closing. I will try to get better pis in the morning or a better description.

goodnight

 

[Thomas423]

I have a question for all you silver experts.

I have some of my grandmother's silver which came from England and could have been her parent's or older.

My question is why can't I polish it???

It was polished for years before I got it and if I had a maid it would still be polished daily. I know that my grandmother's family had maids which would have kept the silver polished and my grandmother kept it polished, so why can't I polish it to make it look pretty again?

AHappyChick.....Great find!!!

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Have you ever used Tarnex on it? Gawd I hope not. What kind of polish are you using? I use the kind that comes in a small white bottle with a blue label. I have none after the holidays and I cannot remember the name of it for the life of me.

 

[AHappychick]

well fresh eyes are not helping I still cant make out the other letters. I have to take my parents to the airport in a while maybe I can stop by an antique dealer afterwards.

 

[horsejody]

You can get a list of apprasers from the Antiquies Road Show here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/appraisers/index.html

Be careful taking it to local antique dealers. My father traded a lot of antiques and dealt with a lot of dealers. Things to keep in mind:

1. They may not have your best interest at heart. They may be more interested in buying it from you for less than it's worth

2. You have a specialty item. It takes expertise in silver to properly value a silver piece.

I would recommend that you find somebody that specializes in appraisals. Call your insurance agent and the local museum for the contact information of ligitimate appraisors. Another good resource may be high end auction houses. An auction house is more interested in you selling it for value than a dealer would be. They work on commission not from buying low and selling high. If your piece is solid silver, it may be very valuable. Don't go just anywhere for your appraisal, or you might get less than what it's worth due to dealer greed or ignorance.

 

[77horses]

I don't know if this is related to it or not, but I searched silver crown markings on Google and found that many air force badges have similar crowns on them. (Like this one:

or this one:

)

Again, I'm not sure if this is related to it or not, but here's the website with a lot of different air force/royal air force badges...I find this all very very interesting. That silver platter you found could have a very interesting story behind it. Maybe it belonged to a famous historical person?
Congrats on such a wonderful and beautiful find! I've always wanted to find some mysterious antique thing...my mom said that when she was a kid, she used to sometimes find different bones and things like stone imprints of ancient shells and stuff in her yard when she dug really deep holes. Makes me want to go outside and do the same thing, but then I remember that it's in the winter and the ground is covered with snow. :rollseyes

Here's the website to all the badges...Hope you find out more about your silver platter!
http://www.jkmilitaria.com/Aviation.html

It may not help, but it's worth looking into.

 

[77horses]

Here are some things that might help:

http://www.onlinesterling.com/helpfulhints/sterling-hallmarks.htm

http://www.modernsilver.com/basichallmarks.htm

The crown in this image looks similar, but it doesn't look quite the same...

Look at the 7th row down, where it says "Sheffield: since 1773":

Hope this helps!

 

[77horses]

Also, here's a good link to a website with Sheffield handmade silver platters, similar to yours...although, yours seems more fancy and older than the ones on the website:
http://www.fesilver.com/fes/catalog_Page_19.htm

Oh and I think this may also help to find out what the marks mean:
http://www.marks4antiques.com/Rolled-Sheffield-Silverplate.htm

http://www.silvercollection.it/AMERICANSILVERPLATEMARKSCDE.html

 

[TammyTX]

....this is good!

 

[77horses]

Here's an English Sheffield tray: