Looking to identify hallmarks epergne



This epergne belonged to my grandparents and was given to me by my mother, can anyone identify the hallmarks? I am making a decision whether to keep it or have some repairs made to it.

It’s made by Horace Woodward & Co, London, 1874.

https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Dates/London/Date%20Letters%20T.html

https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Makers/London-HS-HZ.html#HWoodward

And what type of silver is it?

It’s solid sterling silver (925).


It needs a repair, I wonder what it is worth, any ideas?

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All you can do is poke around online in places like eBay, or in completed auction records, to find something similar that has sold in the last decade or so.

In some brief looking, it appears that Victorian sterling silver epergne and candelabra by Horace Woodward can fetch some substantial money. This is one case in which it might be worth having a chat with a good auction house.

Here’s one with a similar form that sold five years ago for $2200:

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That link also throws up an object lesson in not relying on an auctioneer’s estimate of value: estimated at $4,000 - $6,000, sold for $2,200.

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Yup. Auctioneers sometimes engage in the same kind of feverish wishful thinking as eBay sellers. :wink:

Epergnes, like all heavy, purely ornamental Victorian table silver bling seem to have sunk in value. I bought a 168 tr. oz Regency epergne originally by Edward Barnard & Sons out of Ave Maria Lane at auction for C$17,000.00 and resold it through Pacific Antiques for C$80,000. Len Clarke put it in his window in Victoria B C for C$250,000 and it was not in inventory upon his recent passing. That was back in the last decade of the 20th century. Today? Scrap value for mine would be $4,348, so one would be lucky to get $10,000 at retail for it.

I think that the workmanship of your item alone is worth more than the scrap so this has to be an investment. The extremely low prices and commensurate interest reduction means much Victorian silver is ending up in the furnaces and used in computers for its connectivity.

This year raw or .999 silver is up about 28% but its value is driven by demand which is 98% commercial, specifically computers and cars.

It trails after gold which is on a tear.

Bottom line is keep it and give it to whomever will inherit from you on the clear understanding they will have two dinner parties a year with it and some decent Rundell Candles on the table too and invite you to one. It’s late enough if you or they don’t like cleaning it you could gilt it without harming and probably enhancing value. Victorians by then were using catalyst converters to plate not the deadly lost-mercury responsible for the high turnover of an earlier generation of silversmiths breathing the mercury vapors. You need some glassware for it. Might get lucky on ebay but you will probably have to get the plates custom blown and cut.

CRWW

Thank you all for your feedback. I have some of the glassware and am lucky to have a fabulous glassblower in our little village who can make another piece. Given all the information I have decided to hold onto it and will definitely use it at a dinner party and hope one of my children will eventually do the same.
This is a fabulous forum, you’ve all been so generous with your knowledge.