Nickel Silver, German Silver, Alpacca, Panama Silver, Brazil Silver, Raydium Silver, Aztec Silvor

Sometimes you find a piece of flatware and it is marked as nickel silver, German Silver, Brazil Silver, Alaska Silver, Panama Silver, or Alpacca. I have one piece marked Raydium Silver, it seems really rare. I am going to be blunt with you here, these are not silver. They may be silver in colour but they are not silver. They do not contain silver. They are not the chemical Ag.  They can only be alone or plated with silver.

These pieces are white metal. They can be plated with silver but they are not silver from Brazil, Panama, or Germany.  I cant stress this enough because I see pieces all the time sold as silver from Brazil etc.  They usually contain a proprietary compound of Nickel, Tin, Copper and Zinc. They may contain all or parts of the above list. Each company developed their own formula that fit their needs and cost. This may have changed over time and as the cost of the materials rose and fell.

Now if you have a piece that reads Electro Plate Nickel Silver or EPNS then you have silver plate. This is a thin layer of silver deposited in a chemical reaction on top of the nickel silver, white metal or britannia.

So its not silver is it worth anything?
Yes, Many companies such as Rogers Brothers made flatware in both silverplate and nickel silver. The nickel silver flatware cost less and looked like silver so it was a popular seller. For the maker it was just stopping the production of the silverplate manufacturing process early so they could produce flatware more cheaply. That is they just skipped all the plating and polishing steps. It therefore has a historical value.

It does not have a major market. While many patterns are found in nickel silver and silverplate, it is collected less. This means if you wish to sell it it is going to be harder to find a buyer. However, a spoon in nickel silver and a spoon in sterling scoop ice cream to your lips just as well.  So it has value as a useful object.

Besides in a world filled with cheap stamped stainless or worse steel, having a fork made in the 1900's even if it not "real" silver is still something most people could never dream of.

Top Knife is marked American Nickel Silver.
Second Knife if marked Solid Brazil Silver.
Top spoon is marked Raydium Silver.
Second Spoon is marked Brown & Bros. German Silver.
Fork is Marked W Nickel Silver 18.
Bottom Knife is marked Panama Silver.

Top Spoon is marked DS in a diamond Alpaca Silver.
Second spoon (damaged) is marked PatApldfor Panama, it appears to be nickel silver.
Third spoon is marked Aztec Silvor with an arrow.
Last spoon has no mark and is chrome plated steel.

Spoon is marked Wm. A. Rogers Nickel Silver.
Fork is marked Rogers Nickel Silver.

Antique Egyptian Pattern, E.H.H. Smith Silver Co., Everts

Not a whole lot of luck this weekend. I found a few pieces of flatware. The only piece I am really excited about is another Egyptian revival demitasse spoon.  The first Egyptian revival in the decorative arts lasted from about 1820-1850. A good forty years but silver pieces from this period are scarce enough, so finding pieces in the Egyptian revival style is a herculean (or should we say Osirisian) task. 

There was a second form of Egyptian revival in the decorative arts in the 1920’s after the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamen.  From time to time since then there has been an incorporation of Egyptian motifs in silver and silver plate.This is one such case.

These are my two demitasse spoons in the Egyptian revival style.  They are the Antique Egyptian or Scarab pattern patented in 1909. One is marked Everts and the other has no mark (which as we shall see is not too unusual)  They have scarab beetles on the end of the handle.  These were produced after the height of the first Egyptian revival.  So what do we know about this pattern?

Hagan (1990) list them as Wm. A. Rogers and another company listed simply as Smith in the year 1909 and notes that they are not a full line. Meaning that only select pieces were made in this pattern.  In this book they are called Antique Egyptian.

Bones and Fisher (1998) list them under E. H. H. Smith Silver Company in Bridgeport Connecticut. They claim that it was designed for the Café de L’Opera in New York.  Further they claim that they were often given out as a premium by jewelry stores.  An interesting note is that this line is also known as Scarab. While noted as not being a full line confirming Hagan (1990). Bones and Fisher note that there exist grape shears, nut cracks, butter picks, muddlers as well as dinner spoons, forks and knives. The line appears in their book as having the scarab and without. The end of the piece having a sun disc and papyrus scroll in some cases.

Davis and Deibel (1972) list Antique Egyptian under the E.H.H. Smith Silver Co. showing their marks as a (triangle) S (triangle) and xx S xx where the s is in a box. They have a reprint of an advertisement that confirms that the pattern was designed for the Café de L’Opera in New York.  It also shows knives, butter knives, nut picks etc.  However, all of the pieces shown have the scarab on the piece. Davis and Deibel list the pattern date as 1909 and mention that it can also be found backstamped as Wm. A. Rogers and Everts. Everts used the demitasse spoons as an advertising premium.

Similar pieces:

Rogers & Bros. had a pattern named Egyptian in 1879. Other hollowware makers incorporated various Egyptian themes into their work like sphinxes as finials and the like.  I have also seen papyrus scrolls as a form of decoration. 

A collector I know and admire greatly has a pair of sphinx candlesticks that I am quite jealous of.  Next time I visit his collection I will ask for a picture.

McClure's Magazine, premiums and free silver

"Premiums Given for Trade-Marks to Attract New Customers"

Advertisement is a great example of the sort of thing that companies used to do with silver. There is a lot of premium given silver out in the world, waiting to be discovered. I have a giant box of Queen Bess pattern flatware that was a premium for Betty Crocker.

The 1910 pattern Sunkist by Wm Rogers and Son is another example. It was given away by the Sunkist citrus growers as a premium. Another 1910 pattern by the same maker, Orange Blossom was given away by the California Fruit Growers Exchange. The Rose pattern by the same company was offered as a premium in 1910 by the Liebig Company for their fine product Extract of Beef. To be clear I have no Idea what Extract of Beef is, but I imagine it is something like bullion.

Dunham's Cocanut was a St. Louis company but I do not know much more about them then that. A quick search on Google mainly turned up materials they have left behind as premiums, like dollhouses and recipe books. Still, it is interesting to see the variety of material that was available. The advertisement below is from McClure's MagazineVolume 8 1896. 









Some of the other advertisements are wonderful and you should sort through them. There is one for a meat chopper that claims it can handle anything from "codfish to coconuts" with accompanying pictures. On page 51 there is an advertisement for the Colombia pattern orange spoon made by 1847 Rogers Bros. and the Meriden Britannia Company.



Page 5o has an advertisement for R. Wallace & Sons Mfg. Co. Sterling. The top of the same page has a sterling silver nail polisher made by the Daniel Low & Co. silversmiths from Salem Massachusetts.




Sometimes a company included their stamp on a piece. The Banner Buggy Company of St. Louis (St. Louis again? perhaps a city that likes free stuff) offered flatware pieces made by Wm Rogers Mfg. Co.. One such pattern was Artubus from 1908. These were given out as advertising souvenirs. In 1894 the Banner Buggy Company gave out pieces of the pattern named Florida.  The 1901 pattern Oxford (Wm rogers Mfg. Co. ) was also used by the Banner Buggy Company and Peterson and Company of Chicago. Peterson and Company a flavouring and extract company.

In 1913 the Wm Rogers pattern Argyle (also stamped Anchor Rogers) appears to be the last of the Banner Buggy Premiums.

Many other patterns were adopted as premiums, like Queen Bess mentioned before.

One of my favourite patterns is Friendship from 1932.  friendship was made by Wm Rogers Mfg. Co. as well as Oneida Community Tudor Plate. This pattern had its own naming contest, (the winner of the $ 7,000 prize proposed the name Medality)

Not really surprising considering the contest was for Gold Medal Flour.   I once picked up six dessert forks in this pattern at an estate sale, where the advertisement and "point saving" card were wrapped around the silverware. Someone had carefully saved packaging and was in the process of acquiring more forks.  Something had stopped the process and the whole business had been undisturbed until I picked it up and sorted through it.

I know premiums continued for a while, my own mother has mentioned saving coupons when she was younger for silver. I think this may bear investigation.