I love Monty Python, I only watched the epic Life of Brian the other evening, probably for the 50th time, I know it got a lot of flack when it was released back in 79, but my thinking is (and I’m proud to be a Christian), surely God wouldn’t have blessed us all (well most!) with a sense of humour, and your right, great people on this forum, take care and god bless, Patricia
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Hi everyone, (especially Bart & Jeff)I gave this miniature silver photo frame a light polish, just enough to show some shine and keep some patina to make details stand out, I used a silver polishing cloth made by Town Talk, I was very cautious, and as you can see by the photo, the back of the frame was harder to clean, is there any suggestions to get rid of this tarnish? Any advice is most welcome, Thanks everyone
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From looking at the pics, I’m guessing that the back panel slides from side to side, so you can remove the portrait. That would then free you to use more typical silver polish - almost anything that’s clearly labeled “silver polish,” and not “mag wheel cleaner!”
I’d go very easy on the inner part of the frame, which appears to have some sort of reddish border. Not sure what it is, but you wouldn’t want to scrub it away.
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Hi Jeff, many thanks for getting back to me, how dozy am I lol! I never even noticed the back slides out! as you can see I’ve done exactly that, the red colour you see around the inner frame is the reflection from a book right next to it, I have a tube of “Peek” all purpose metal cleaner, which I’ve used before with great success on modern silver jewellery, thanks to you, it will make the job so much easier, kindest regards, Patricia 
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Excellent! I figured there had to be a way to swap out the photo.
All-purpose metal cleaner might be OK for modern pieces, but for anything with higher value, better to get something less abrasive.
This could be an interesting collecting specialty - sterling dollhouse miniatures. The Pain pieces are too new - they’re still being offered, new, at predictably outrageous retail prices. But with only one exception that I can find, they haven’t started showing up on the secondary market (like eBay), and probably aren’t going to surface in the local car boot. Given their diminutive size, the silver content becomes somewhat irrelevant.
But there are other makers out there. Might be fun to do some not-too-expensive treasure hunting!
No hope for those of us who are addicted to chunky Georgian hollowware (or even Queen Anne - I’ve got a small 1710 Britannia silver coffee pot). Even in the current depressed market, the prices make all the blood drain from your head, and you feel woozy, and have to lie down.
Hi Jeff, ooh! I’m afraid I already used the peek polish, only lightly though, I have done some research on the makers Vic and Margaret Pain, and a collector valued my frame at around £200 + as it’s a one off, you could have knocked me down with a feather!! It is a beautiful object though, I’m seriously debating whether to sell it, I could really use £200 if someone is prepared to pay that for it, apparently I was also told its a museum quality piece, so whoohoo lol! I’m going to take some pics of it later tomorrow so I’ll post them on here, hopefully you can let me know if I’ve done a good enough job, take care and kindest regards, Patricia
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Well, don’t get too excited. 
First, museum piece? I think not. This piece and its companions were produced within the last 20 years, and some of them are still being offered for sale new, in a retail setting.
Then, what something is “worth” and what you can actually sell it for are often miles apart. If you wanted to sell this on eBay, for example, you’d need to know how to list and price it properly. And even if you do everything right, it might go nowhere.
You could set a “buy it now” price, only to discover that no one is even clicking on it. A buyer has to be actively looking for something like this - eBay doesn’t announce it to the world. Then, it could sit without a buyer for months, or even years. Or, you could do a timed auction, with a low starting price to generate some interest, like £1. The danger there, of course, is that someone could walk off with it for £8.
Finally, and somewhat perversely, you need to have at least some eBay selling experience. Buyers are leery of someone with no selling feedback. There’s nothing to give them confidence.
And then if you do sell it, eBay will give you an immediate 13.5% haircut. Regular auction houses are even worse, routinely taking as much as half the hammer price before all the fees are taken into account (seller’s commission, listing fee, photographing fee, cataloging fee, fee for keeping the office coffee pot filled, fee for feeding the cat, you name it).
All of this points to why I suggested that this could be the start of an entertaining collecting experience, rather than a money maker. It would be different if you had stumbled onto some hitherto unknown 18th Century Paul de Lamerie masterpiece, the kind of thing you take to the Antiques Roadshow, and for which they give you a life-altering valuation.
Hi Jeff, i didn’t say it was a museum piece, the quality is museum grade, if you do some research on the makers of this item, you will see they were both master silversmiths specialising in 1:12 scale dollhouse miniatures, they retired in 2015, I have been selling on ebay since 2003, I was extremely lucky to come across a job lot of dollhouse miniatures, which I purchased from a retired lady last year, who ran her own boutique dollhouse and collectable miniatures shop back in the 1980’s and 90’s, along with this item, there were pieces I discovered made by Danny Shotton, which I successfully sold on ebay, one of which went to an American collector, I’ll list it on ebay, and we’ll just have to wait and see take care, Patricia
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Hi Patricia:
Last year marks the 100th anniversary of the wife of King George V Queen Mary, being gifted a Dolls’ House. Like your frame, everything in it was constructed to 1:12 scale. It has running water, electric lights, even the books in the library are real. Artisans donated their skills and products toward the gift. Mappin & Webb did the silverware. I think this started the trend for miniatures in the mid 1920’s.
Today looking at what the late Obadiah Fisher’s silver is selling for now it is clearly a trend which is well established.
But still going strong is Mike Sparrow:
I am not familiar with the makers of your frame and am indebted to you for bringing them to the Forum readers’ attention.
Post a link if the forum permits and I will take a look at your Ebay listing. My problems with Ebay is not the commission but it’s become sort of dumping ground for everything and the proprietors don’t really help sales much with the way they have organized the North American sites
So far as cleaning is concerned, don’t do any more. The world is divided between some North Americans who equate tarnish with antiquity and Europeans who prefer their household items discernible and tidy.
Sterling silver is a pretty robust commodity and a thorough clean after decades of sitting around won’t hurt at all but let the buyer do it.
Good luck!
CRWW
In that case, happy listing! From the tone of your posts, I had the impression you were someone who had accidentally stumbled on something that you knew nothing about. It’s good that you’re aware of the pitfalls of selling treasures - a lot of people think that they’re going to retire to the south of France on the proceeds of what they’ve found. 
I would disagree with out on that score, particularly if the intent is to flog it online. When buyers see a tarnished piece, I suspect many of them say, “This is a seller who found this in a car boot sale, doesn’t have a clue about what it is, doesn’t care enough about it to give it even a bit of attention, and is just trying to make a fast buck. So the listing is probably heavily larded with wild guesses. The condition is suspect - it might be so neglected, it might be a massive undertaking to clean it up. So if I bid on this, I’m taking quite a gamble.” When it comes to silver, I think “shiny sells.”
I think you know how I feel about “original patina” - unless the maker applied the oxidation intentionally, there’s nothing “original” about it. There’s one U.S. seller of vintage cars who sometimes won’t wash the dirt off his barn finds. He seems to think that, when new, Ferraris sometimes arrived with genuine Maranello dirt on them, straight from the factory.
Hi Jeff, no I didn’t know anything about the frame, as I didn’t know anything about the other items in the lot to start with, but I do now, thanks to you and Bart, once identified, I did my own research, I will be taking some pics later today, so see what you think, take care, Patricia
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Not sure how that amounts to disagreeing with me. You seem to be saying exactly what I am: there are two types of silver buyers, those who like stuff clean and those who think grubby silverware sells.
You and I belong to the latter group. However I do not encourage people who are experimenting with cleaning to do so on precious items. Hence my advice to Patricia. Leave it to the buyer. If I buy I will do it myself.
CRWW
I just don’t see grubby silver selling very often. Low interest level (few if any watchers), and low hammer prices. Shiny brings out the bidders.
ETA: The only exception involves job lots of damaged silver that’s being explicitly sold for scrap. No point wasting polish on it, of course.
Hi thankyou very much for your lovely message, its great to hear from you, I have taken a few photos of my photo frame, I only have a phone, so I apologise for the not so great quality, I haven’t listed it on ebay UK yet, and I look forward hearing your valued opinion, thankyou again and kindest regards, Patricia
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One of the joys of sterling is how nicely it cleans up, even after years of neglect. Your little picture frame is looking very nice. 
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Thankyou Jeff, I hopefully didn’t over do it lol! you can see how detailed it is now, how someone has the skill and patience to create something so tiny I’ll never know, take care, Patricia
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Your next challenge is to identify the person in the photo.
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Haha! not a chance… I give up! 