Silver Sunday with Gypsy Fish

On the second Sunday of every month,

Beth, author of the fabulous blog

Gypsy Fish Journal

hosts "Silver Sunday".

This is the first time I've joined the party!

I wanted to share my Old Sheffield silver tea & coffee service

that sits on the buffet in the dining room.
There are two pitchers behind the front ones.
I should have moved them apart before taking so many photos.

I'm SO glad we moved this large mirror to this spot.
It really opens up the whole space but I have mixed
emotions about what toll it took.
You can read about that adventure here.
It was the very next day that hubby had his heart attack.
I'm sure the lifting of that heavy thing contributed to it!!!

I find it difficult to photograph such shiny things.
I tried in many different lights & times of day.
I tried with the early morning sunshine streaming in on it.I tried up close without a flash during the middle of the day.

Then later as the light changed.

Even the low light of evening...that glare is from the arched window...my flash was off.

I've searched for information about Old Sheffield, specifically

"silver on copper" as mine is marked & would like

to share this article from a magazine on the subject.
( Originally Published 1963 )


Almost as valuable as solid silver are old pieces of Sheffield plated silver. Sheffield, England, has been a famous center for metal and cutlery since the fourteenth century. The special process named after the town dates back to 1742 when Thomas Boulsover, a cutler, found that silver and copper could be fused by heating, then rolled out into a thin, smooth plate that could be worked as could solid silver. Old Sheffield plate is made from two sheets of silver bonded to one of copper, with the edges bound in silver. The sheets of silver in Sheffield plate are thicker than the covering of silver deposited by electrolysis on modern plated silver.

Articles of Sheffield plate were displayed proudly on sideboards, mantelpieces, and dining tables. The same pieces and the same styles that were used for silver also were produced in Sheffield plate. Candlesticks and candelabra, teapots, tea and coffee services, trays, serving dishes, and tureens were the principal large pieces. Baskets for cake and fruit, cruet stands, and epergnes were handsome and now owned by far more people than when they were made only of silver. Inkstands, small boxes for tobacco and snuff, buckles and buttons also were used and worn proudly.

Gadrooned edges were as general on Sheffield plate as on silver. Shells and three feathers were common decorative motifs and an initial or a monogram was usual. A few firms are said to have produced quite distinctive pieces that borrowed little from silver ones in design or decoration. All firms were noted for their good workmanship.

The making of Sheffield plate was a thriving industry for about 100 years. Some small amount was made in America, but most of the early Sheffield plate to be found in this country was imported. In the early 1800's, the fusing of silver on copper spread to France, Germany, and elsewhere in central Europe as well as Russia, but the quality is not considered to be as high as that of the Sheffield plate made in England. It's not unusual to find candlesticks or other household pieces of European plate in this country. However, the silver-on-copper ware made in Europe during the nineteenth century seldom seems to be stamped with maker's marks-certainly I have never seen any marks on pieces made in Germany.

During a ten-year period from the 1770's into the 1780's, London silversmiths succeeded in preventing firms that made Sheffield plate from marking their ware. Before the early 1770's and after 1784, identification marks similar to those stamped on silver were used, Some pieces also had the word Sheffield stamped above the hallmark.

In the 1840's, the making of Sheffield plate began to die out. It's interesting that within thirty years or so, in England, antique collectors began acquiring pieces of Sheffield plate. In 1911, action was taken and it was established in court in Sheffield that the term "Sheffield Plate" could be applied only to pieces made by the method of fusing practiced in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Antique Sheffield plate probably represents a lost art. These pieces wear surprisingly well. However, articles with thin spots where the silver has worn down or been cut by repeated use of a carving knife so that the red copper base is exposed are called "bloody." Such pieces bring a lower price than one with its silver coatings unblemished.

Sheffield plate was less expensive than solid silver. However, it was not as much cheaper as pressed glass was in comparison to cut glass. Therefore, when the newer process of electroplating was developed in the 1840's, it displaced the Sheffield plating method in just a few years. Electroplating proved to be a far cheaper process of covering a base metal with silver (then, as now, sterling cost about three times as much as the same piece in plated silver.)


Only an article that is 92.5 per cent pure silver could be marked "Sterling." Plated- silver, however, was made in several grades. Currently, plated silver is either standard or first quality, the latter term meaning that the pieces have a heavier coating of silver than standard ones. Quite an amount of nineteenth-century plated silver is stamped "Triple" or "Quadruple" plate. Such pieces, if they have been exposed, may be charcoal-colored and take a good deal of polishing to restore their silver tone. Of course, even triple or quadruple-plated pieces that were used daily for a good many years will have spots where the silver coating has worn down to the base metal. It's worth the hard polishing that a darkened piece of plated silver needs to see just how it will look. Many of the triple- and quadruple-plated pieces are in surprisingly good condition and need only minimum polishing to look their best. "

I try to be very careful when polishing my set,
by not rubbing too hard & never soaking it harsh cleaners.
Those can get into hollow areas & eat away at the metal over time.

Thanks, Beth, for letting me share my pretty shiny objects
& thanks for visiting the Gazebo House today, too.
Be sure to stop by Beth's blog to see the other silver items, too.

fondly,