Granny's old silver

Hello,

Just before my wife (of 6 months) and I got married, we were given a set of sterling silver flatware by her grandmother. This had apparently been passed down many generations.

There are actually two full sets: one set sterling, the other set (we presume) plated.

We don’t want to sell the stuff, we just want to know what it’s worth, for insurance purposes. I’m trying to find someone in the central Ohio area who appraises antique sterling flatware, but it’s really difficult. Hopefully we’ll have it appraised soon.

The complete collection includes, starting with the best (we think) knives, forks, and spoons first:

6 knives, reading “1847 Rogers Bros Warranted 16 DWT”

8 forks, 5 original and 3 are what seem to be replacements…
5 of them read “1847 Rogers Bros” and a small circular mark with “MERIDEN” and 3 indistinguishable letters,
1 fork reads “W.F Rogers 12”
1 “WM A. Rogers 12 DWT”
1 “(star symbol) Rogers & Bro.”

7 identical spoons with a “boxy” pattern, dots around the edges, and a floral design near the bottom, reading “1847 Rogers Bros”.

That was a description of the “first” set. I’m assuming the second, lesser set is plated, because the forks and knives say “Sterling Applied, Holmes & Edwards,” but as for the spoons, I am questioning whether they are plated or sterling.

They have an overwhelming floral pattern, and are more “rounded” than the other ones. They all read “International (symbol) Sterling R,” and “Prelude,” in script.

We also have all kinds of odds and ends pieces: a couple plated salad forks, a very “rounded” spoon reading “1847 Rogers Bros. AI. (seal),” two other Rogers Bros. spoons, both of a different style, a plated cheese knife, a plated large spoon, cheese knife, and baby fork and spoon.

All pieces are in a used but very good condition. Many are tarnished, but we can fix that quite easily using a hand cream polish.

What do you think? Is this set worth more than my car ($3,500 USD), or do I need less than $1,000 in insurance coverage? Less than $500? I wouldn’t think that…

I tried to add a photo, but it came back saying that the pic needed to be less than 500x500 pixels. Even my older cell phone camera apparantly takes bigger pictures than that.

Thanks for your opinion!

Brandon

Hi Brandon,

Thanks for joining us on silver-collector.com and happy new year!

It sounds like your flatware is a complete mixture of styles and makers and this obviously is worth less than a complete set.

Without pictures, its hard to give you an idea of price. I recently discovered an online picture resizing website. You upload your picture and then you can download a smaller version. Its very simple and free. You might want to give it a try…

picresize.com

when you get to the bit about choosing the size, select ‘custom size’ and enter 500 pixels in either the height or width. If your picture is portrait, use height. If its landscape use width. If you enter 500pixels in both, it will distort your picture into a square. There is an option to crop your image but I couldn’t get this to work.

A question about the knives. Are the blades stainless steel? Stainless steel was invented in the early twentieth century and didn’t start to be used with knives until about 1920/30. Also, are the knife blades coming away from the handles? Is there any black ‘goo’ seeping out at the join?

Try to sort out the pictures and then we will be able to help further.

Regards

Jonathan

Brandon - Rogers Bros was an American maker of silver plated flatware. The name “Rogers Bros.” was first used in 1847 and the company became part of the International Silver Co. in 1898. International still produces “1847 Rogers Bros” silver plated flatware to this day. It is all silver plate and has little or no value.

On the other hand, your items of International marked “sterling” are solid 92.5% silver, the American (and UK) standard. International’s “prelude” pattern is very popular and readily available from replacement outlets at prices ranging from $20-$40 each. Pattern identification is easy using www.replacements.com

As a rule of thumb, all American sterling silver made after about 1850 has the word(s) “sterling” , “sterling silver”, “.925” or “925/1000 FINE” stamped on it.

Thanks for joining us on silver-collector.com

Uncle Vic

I think you should try check spoons here

Hi, I just gone through your ebay, it’s looking good. Thanks for sharing with us,