Silver in an Estate
A sterling flatware service in its chest, a tea set on the sideboard, a tray nobody has polished in years. The marks on the back decide which is which.
Silver fills a dining room: a service for twelve in a felt-lined chest, a coffee and tea set, candlesticks, a punch bowl, trays, and loose serving pieces in the hutch. Some of it is sterling. Some is coin silver from the nineteenth century. A lot of it is silverplate, which looks the same on the table and is worth a small fraction as much.
We sort it by the marks on the back of each handle and the base of each piece. Sterling is 925 parts silver in a thousand and sells on weight, or above weight when the maker and pattern are in demand. Plate is copper or nickel under a thin silver skin, and we tell you plainly when a handsome piece is plate.
Reading the marks
- Sterling: stamped STERLING or 925, with a maker such as Gorham, Wallace, Reed and Barton, or Towle
- Mexican silver: marked 925 or 980 with a Taxco maker’s mark, collected on its own
- English silver: a row of hallmarks with a lion, a town mark, and a date letter
- Coin silver: a maker’s name or the word COIN, with no 925
- Plate: EPNS, EP, Quadruple Plate, or Sheffield on a copper base
What lifts sterling above its weight
A complete service in the original chest, a sought-after pattern like Francis I or Chantilly, and hollowware from Tiffany, Georg Jensen, or an early American maker. Monograms matter less than families fear. Weighted candlesticks are filled with pitch, so we price them on the silver alone.
Before we look
Do not polish anything. Tarnish leaves the sterling content untouched, and polishing wears down the detail on old pieces. Do not split a service among siblings before we count it, because a full set sells better than three partial ones. Keep the chest, the cloth bags, and any receipt or pattern card with the silver.
How we buy it
We buy sterling flatware and everyday hollowware outright, along with the plate, which goes into the household sale. Important hollowware and signed designer silver get an auction estimate next to our price.
Where silver fits the wider picture is something we cover in reviewing the full estate for households across Dallas–Fort Worth.
Common questions
Turn the piece over. STERLING or 925 means solid silver. EPNS, EP, or a plating brand means plate. When a mark is worn or missing, we test it.
Less than most families think. On flatware sold by weight, it changes nothing. On a fine tea set, an old monogram is part of the history, so leave it alone.
No. Tarnish comes off later and has no effect on what the silver is worth by weight. We would rather see each piece as it sits in the cabinet.
Tell us about the estate
Call us, or send a few details and we will call you back to set up a walkthrough.