I bought what I thought was a brass ladle this past weekend but when I took a closer look, I saw a small patch of silver plate on the bottom side of the bowl and the mark Newark Silver on the stem of the Ladle. I couldn’t find any information on Newark Silver. Does anyone know if they were in business in Newark, NJ and when?
Hi there and thanks for joining us. I’ve looked high and low and can’t find a “Newark Silver” maker either. Unger Brothers was a prominent Newark, NJ silver maker and perhaps its one of their silver plate marks, but that’s just a guess. I looked at some of the silver plate marks of major manufacturers such as International, Rogers, etc to see if they might have used that trade name, but didn’t find anything.
I’ll keep looking.
Regards,
Uncle Vic
Thank you for trying. This is a gravy ladle with no decoration but smooth, thin, elegant curve to the handle that ends in a flat wide top that curves up slightly. The handle looks as if it was attached to the bowl and not part of a mold. Wouldn’t it have taken many years for all but a tiny patch of silver to have worn off, or could there have been something wrong in the way it was plated? I love a mystery, but I love solving one more. Thanks,
No way to know why the plating came off - most probably some error in cleaning, such as using an acid cleaner such as the “dips” on the market as that stuff will eat up silver so fast it will make your head spin. I’ve used it as a last resort on sterling items that were severely tarnished and a dip of 8 seconds will remove not only the tarnish, but some silver. A very brief mis-calculation on dipping a silver plated item would remove virtually all the silver plating.
It is very common for the bowl to be made separate from the handle on a ladle and te two silver soldered together.
Regards,
Uncle Vic
I have a spoon with this maker mark “Newark Silver” on it which also looks like most of the silver is gone off of it. The handle part of the spoon at the very end is looped over, almost like you can put your finger in it to hold it to feed a baby or something but the size of the spoon is almost teaspoon size… can’t find any info on this company either. Picked up the spoon at local Goodwill. Will post pic soon. 
I’m just excited to hear that someone has a piece with this same hallmark. I have executed several searches since my initial post, but no luck so far. Hopefully someone will eventually come across information on Newark Silver. Thanks,
Newark Silver: I have 9 ice cream spoons and 12 soda spoons. There were in my grandmother’s things, I don’t know where she got them. I learned from “someone” a long time ago, name completely lost to history, that they were used in ice cream parlours. They are beautiful!
I found a Newark silver spoon one buried on my land in a old trash pile from the 1930-1940s. Was hoping it would be worth something.
Damaged electroplate normally has no value.