Sterling Silver Feet Repairs

Late 19th/Early 20th-Century Art Nouveau Silver Bowl with Broken foot

The foot on this delicate late 19th/early 20th-Century silver bowl had broken off. I had to be very careful doing this repair. The silver was very thin. I was able to solder the foot back on and strengthen the repair. with wire on the inside.

Silver Plate Handle & Feet Repairs

Handles and feet break very easily on silver plate. They are made from cast white metal and soldered on with low temperature solder. The attachment is not strong. Repairing antique and vintage silver plate takes great skill to avoid damaging the silver plating. In addition, the feet and handles melt at very close to the same temperature as the solder. These silver objects may not have great intrinsic value, but hold great sentimental value.

BROKEN handles on a silver plate dish

The handle on this silver plate dish was broken off.  These handles are cast white metal but can be soldered back on with great care to preserve the silver plating. After the handle was repaired the silver plating was polished lightly. The final result (right photo) was a vast improvement in the appearance and function.

Silver plate creamer handle broken and repaired

The handles on silver plate are white metal which is both brittle and not very strong. For this reason, the handles break easily. I can solder the handles back together. In this case, I added a sterling silver wire at the breaks to reinforce the handle and conceal the repair.

Broken Feet of a Tray

Feet often break off silverplate trays as in this example (left photo.)  The feet can be soldered back with great skill and care. The difficulty is that the low temperature solder is very close to the melting temperature of the cast white metal feet.   

If a foot or handles breaks off your silver be very careful to save this for future repair. There is no source for extra feet or handles for silverplate.
Do not use glue. It will not hold.  

Do not use glue to repair a handle on silverplate

The handle of this sugar bowl was broken off. Unfortunately, the customer has tried to repair this themselves with glue. Do not use glue to repair silver.  Glue will not hold silver no matter what the glue packaging or advertising proclaims. The glue is also very unattractive as you can see in the photo (right) where the glue is sloppy and discolored, 

When a silver plate object arrives with glue, I have to remove the glue very carefully trying not to damage the silver plating.  This adds to the cost of repair because the glue really sticks to the silver plating and often causes the plating to peep off. Glue is definitely not strong enough to hold the handle. This sugar bowl was successfully repaired with solder and returned to the customer.

HOT WATER KETTLE WITH BROKEN HANDLE

This hot water kettle arrived with the support stand broken off and small leaves from the lid finial were also broken (left photo.)  Thank goodness the customer saved all the broken pieces as there is no such thing as replacement parts for old silver. After this hot water kettle was repaired, professional polishing transformed its appearance dramatically.

Silver plate ChaFing Dish Handle Repair

This was a standard mid-20th-century chafing dish that the customer used regularly. If you can imagine a heavy chafing dish filled with food is a lot of weight on one handle. To reinforce and strengthen the repair for this single socket (for the wooden handle) I cut a sheet of sterling silver in an attractive shape to solder where the handle broke off. The sterling sheet concealed the repair, and strengthens the repair.

This repair turned out very well, but keep in mind the silver plating was in excellent condition before I started. Adding the sterling sheet takes extra time and costs more, but is far more attractive and stronger. Still, I would recommend using the single handle during serving, but when full of food, I think the chafing dish should be carried with pot holders holding on to the sides.

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Silver plate vegetable dish with handle repaired and polished

This silver plate vegetable dish arrived filled with sentimental value but black with tarnish and one of the handles was broken off.  It was repaired and carefully polished to preserve the silver plating,  

View more repairs of silver plate and silver plating by CLICKING HERE.