Hello everyone, I’m from Caracas, Venezuela. I just inherited a large amount of sterling silverware from my grandmother. Cutlery, tea sets, trays, chandeliers and lots more. Some of it coming from Europe and some from Mexico and I think even Peru. I was a bit dismayed when my father told me I wouldn’t be able to get more than the price in weight of the silver I have since that is what most dealers offer, only so they can sell it for their real value later. So it came as a pleasant surprise for me to find this forum. I’m really excited to find out how much I can get for my silverware.
I can just post a few pictures right now. I will post more later.
Here are some of them. I don’t have time to take better pictures, so I aopologize for the poor image quality. These will do for now.
This is the brand:
And this is the corresponding item:
This is the item:
And these are the rest of the pieces of the same brand (except the tray) for this set:
I wil post more shortly, including the brand of the tray and other pieces also.
Hi there Journeyman, and thanks for joining us here on silver-collector.com. The tea set you show is American sterling silver, made by the International Silver Co. probably in the mid-20th century. The “brand” you show (and by the way, your images are excellent) is for the sugar bowl (pattern #12403) of a four or five pc. tea/coffee set in the “Prelude” pattern, one of International’s most popular. The various pcs. are marked “Prelude” and 12401 through 12404 for the four pc. set and 12401 through 12405 for the five pc. set. Your set is missing the creamer, #12404, which is available from replacements.com for about $180 retail. The value of the complete four pc. set, without the tray, is about $1,200 retail. Without the creamer I’d venture less than $1,000. If it was originally a five pc. set, it would also have the waste bowl, worth about the same as the creamer and would raise the retail value of the set to about $1,400.
Please take and post an image of the marks on the reverse of the tray, as the tray alone, if sterling, could be worth more than the tea set, and please include length and width, and if possible, weight.
The estimated retail values I mentioned came from the asking prices on replacements.com. Go there, click on “silver”, then “International”, then scroll down to the “Prelude” pattern and you will find the pattern number, 12401 through 12405 and the individual items and the sets.
Because this was a very popular mass produced pattern, I’d suggest you do a search on the “completed items” on eBay to get a better idea what this sort of set is selling for in the real world.
Again, thanks for joining us, and please post up images of your other items.
Uncle Vic
Thanks for the prompt reply 
I’ll post images of the tray later, because the camera’s memory if full right now.
This is a rare and much older tray with no marks on it. It’s really light, but it’s pure silver, I’m sorry I don’t have a way of measuring the weight right now. As for the dimensions, I’ll try to get to that later.
This is another similar tray also without any marks on it.
Here’s the tray from before:
I’m sorry I haven’t been able to measure the dimensions yet, all I know it’s pure sterling silver from Mexico
I will keep posting pictures later.
Journeyman, thanks for the new pictures. First, the tray that your International tea/coffe set was shown on is indeed Mexican. I have seen the “SZS” mark before but cannot locate it in my guides on a first look. The mark - lower part - “playa 925” tells us it is 92.5% silver, or the sterling standard. The upper mark that includes “…Mexico D F” tells us it was made in Mexico City, as “DF” is the Mexican shorthand for “District Federale”, or in English, the “Federal District” for the providence of Mexico City, the capital of Mexico. Similar to here in the US, where our national capital is Washington, DC, with “DC” shorthand for District of Columbia. Just based on the proportions of the tea/coffee pots you show on the tray, I’d roughly estimate the tray at $300-600. If it is very heavy, say two or three pounds or more, perhaps more.
The other unmarked trays you show appear to me to be of South American origin, just by the style and lack of marks. The item with “900” marked on it is 90% silver, slightly less than the sterling standard of 92.5%. I have seen a good bit of South American silver in the 900 purity, most from Peru. The Mexican and South American silver generally does not command prices comparable to American or English silver of the same vintage, probably because the market is just not that familiar with it.
Thanks again for sharing your silver with us.
Uncle Vic
Here’s a set of spoons bearing only the mark “800” on them.
And here’s a pair of Norwegian spoons that look like they’re used for serving salad.
I will keep posting more, There’s still a lot of stuff left!
Here’s yet a nother set of spoons:
Journeyman, thanks for using silver-collector!
May I ask you to post new items in new topics with clear descriptive titles.
This makes the forum much easier to use.
Regards
Jonathan