Old Sheffield
Old Sheffield Plate candlesticks showing copper base
- Thomas Boulsover invented a way in which silver could be bonded to copper and rolled together to provide a solid silver layer over a copper base layer. The silver was thin and therefore the cost of the materials was much lower than for sterling silver. As a result, "silver" became available to the expanding middle class but Sheffield Plate also appeared on the tables of the rich and famous as a day to day tableware as well as in the servants hall.
- There was nothing cheap about Sheffield Plate. Once the basic material was constructed the production of the item was the same as for sterling silver requiring hand beating, soldering and polishing.
Dixon, Elkington and Mappin & Webb electro plating royalty.
The great platers
In the UK the great names in silver plate were nearly all from the Sheffield region. Elkington & Co, James Dixon & Son, Walker and Hall and above all, Hukin & Heath led the world with design and quality and many of their plated wares are as good today as when they were made.
Plate was for the great (as well as the middle class)
We might like to think of the aristocracy eating off silver at every meal. That is simply not true. Yes they had wonderful sterling plate services for great events, but for breakfast, on a wet Tuesday in the London Town house... well plate was good enough. Also remember the army of servants. The Butler, House Keeper and certainly the senior staff ate well and in a very formal setting. For them plate was the chosen item too.
But electro plate was also in huge demand by the emerging total and restaurant industries. The growth of railways allowed people to travel and hotels grew up all over the country, both in the big commercial centres and in the coastal resorts. Every hotel with aspirations wanted to put silverware in front of its guests. Especially hard wearing product lines were developed specifically for this trade and it is some of these that we often see on the market today.
Who sold silver plate?
I think the greatest of the retailers (certainly those still going) are Mappin and Webb who sold vast quantities of Mappin Plate and Princes Plate. Liberty, Harrods and all the other grand London stores sold plate either under their own brand (Mappin and Webb made their own plate they sold so much) but also made by a third party (Chatterley's of Birmingham certainly made for Asprey) and often sold under the manufacturers back stamp - companies such as Elkington or Roberts and Belk.
Designers of silver plate
Sadly the vast majority of product designers are unknown (even today the vast majority of designers are not credited for their work) but there are stand out names. The first is Dr Christopher Dresser who designed for Elkington, Hukin and Heath and James Dixon between about 1870 and 1885. His designs were made in sterling and plate and are very collectable today. Interestingly the Dixon's cost books have survived and they show many Dresser-like designs that were done by their own staff. Later, Mappin and Webb employed on elf the leading lights of 1930s design in Keith Murray - again his wares were made in sterling and plate.
Value and pricing
Sterling was always a great luxury. It was expensive and reserved "for best" which in many middle class households meant never used. Plate could be used more often and was a fraction of the price. Nearly every couple seems to have received a set of cased teaspoons and fish knives and forks (a totally useless invention IMHO) as wedding gifts. James Dixon's catalogue for 1925 (available in the British Library) illustrates a nearly 10 fold difference between sterling and plate and also show 3 grades of plate depending on the thickness of the spillover covering a base metal.
Today Sterling is still highly sought after. It is relatively expansive, both because there was always less of it and because silver is today about £15 an ounce. that means the silver in a teaspoon would cost about £5 (which also means a lot of also ran sterling - and there is a VAST amount of it - is mostly being bought at auction for scrap; often if it is in a "set" of 5 or 11, meaning that one or more has been lost.
Plate on the other hand is polarised in value. A set of 6 EPNS (Electro plated nickel silver) or other plated wares might fetch £5 in the trade and £15 in an antique shop. But if it is a cruet or condiment set designed by Dr Dresser and made by Elkington and Co it will sell for £1000 or so. This reflects the fact that a sterling one - if it ever comes on the market - would probably fetch £3000 in a smart gallery. But that is if there was one to buy... which generally there isn't and if there is you will almost certainly need to go to a Bond Street Auction House to buy one. Of course this is why we in the antiques trade scour small auctions and fairs to try and spot the sleeper that Great Aunt Agatha has as a wedding gift in 1900 and no one has recognised (this does happen - shame on you auctioneers and valuers).