These black stains are resistant to silver polish. What can I safely try to remove them please?
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It can be frustrating to get these out. Try Wrights Silver Polish its a paste and use clean rags like a t-shirt. You probably will have to polish in a circular motion several times. Don’t use a liquid dip or the baking soda and aluminum foil method it can cause pitting that makes problems. There are many advocate of dips and baking soda however IMHO it can make a mess. I ruined a Silverplate coffee pot that way. If it is silver plate and not sterling you might end up taking down the plate to get rid of the black. First try soaking in lukewarm water with dawn soap with the glass be careful not to hot. A baby or very soft tooth brush after soaking in dish soap. It might be burnt sugar residue or what ever was in the pitcher. Polish several times it can be a process. Let me know how it goes.
Thanks for getting back to me. I have ordered some Hagerty’s silver paste which is similar to Wrights. The item is sterling silver, not plate, so I don’t have to be worried about rubbing through to base metal. But, I’ll be careful nonetheless.
The item is a “whisky noggin” and has hallmarks for 1910. I’ll let you know how I get on with the paste.
I have tried the Hagerty silver paste and no real improvement 
I examined the area with a magnifying glass and to my untrained eye, it look like there is some surface pitting 
I hope the photo shows it.
Any ideas what next? Use a dip? Or something like 2000 grade wet and dry paper.?
Thanks in advance.
If there is pitting then it may be that the only solution is to remove a layer of silver. Do you know anybody with a buffing wheel?
It is of course possible that the pitting penetrates fairly deeply into the silver, especially as we have no idea of the corrosiveness of the agent responsible for the damage. In that case I would suggest consulting an expert. Try to find a silversmith who can advise or possibly carry out the necessary work.
However you may consider the cost to be too great with regard to the value of the noggin; they seem to be selling on Ebay for ÂŁ50-ÂŁ100 [GBP].
I agree with the above, but you might be able to get to an acceptable level with the Haggerty’s. Make sure you let the cream dry on the silver before you start polishing, that helps, and after you do it about 20 times you might find that the black is faded enough. I had a similarly weird stain/etching on a serving spoon and it finally was acceptable after pretty much a full bottle of Wright’s which is more aggressive (and I wouldn’t use on my good stuff) and a lot of patient polishing. Good luck.
Thanks P and S, I do have a Dremel and so have ordered a range of mops, buffs and polishing compounds ( Tripoli, white diamond and rouge)…. But I will persevere with the Hagertys first. I was using it with a wet cloth, so might have more success using dry as P has suggested.
I’ll keep you posted.