I have attached photos of a 10.5" piece and hope someone can tell me if this is Princess / Hand Chased Rose. I am pretty sure it is, but I cannot find a sterling mark anywhere on it. I looked very closely at the ferrule, but just cannot see one. The blade reads “THE STIEFF COMPANY / SILVERSMITHS”, so I know it’s Stieff, but could there be a sterling piece like this with no visible STERLING mark? Also, I use replacements.com for information on patterns and they do not show an ice cream slice in the Princess pattern. They do sometimes not know of a piece being in a pattern, though, so I assume there is an ice cream slice in the Princess pattern.
Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
David
Always difficult to tell from photos but the chasing looks like sterling or possibly .900 silver. The blade is steel. Probably sterling. The labour is too costly to cheap out on the silver content.
Here’s a partial explanation for the sterling mark lack which you may have already viewed.
http://www.thestieffcompany.com/The_Stieff_Company/You_think_it_is_STIEFF_ROSE…_But_is_it.html
To me this looks hand-chased not stamped and you simply couldn’t hand-chase plate without going through the micron-thin silver coating.
There a long discussion about dating Kirk-Stieff silver on the other forum which while not directly relevant to the sterling/plate issue you raise I found interesting.
If there was going to be a mark it would be on the bottom or collar. In this case the collar is too thin the bottom is chased too.
A buyer might well expect you to have tested it for silver which would provide you with another way of removing any doubt.
CRWW
