19th-Century Silver
Antique Candlesticks from Germany, Eastern Europe or Poland

This page shows only candlesticks from Eastern Europe, Poland or Russia/Lithuania from the 19th century or early 20th century. You will see that they have similar construction and decorative aesthetic. Look at the bases, candle cups, and decorative embellishments. They also have similar repair /restoration issues including old poorly done repairs. Most of the these candlesticks are 800 silver, but they also came in silverplate.

19th century candlesticks after repairing base and candlecups

The photos below show the before and after repair of the bases and candle cups.

crushed candlestick base from 19th-century antique silver candlestick tarnished with damaged silver
repair and polishing of candlestick base from 19th-century antique silver candlestick

The candlesticks cups were extremely damaged, cracked, and ripped especially on one of the candlesticks. Look at the photos below to view the damage to the candle cup as it was repaired. These photos represent days of work.

silver antique 19th-century candlestick arrived badly damaged crushed candle cup with rips, tears and significant damage.
Antique silver candle cup damage gradually pushed out and soldered
candlestick cup from Antique silver candlesticks being repaired
Repair work is days and weeks of gradual improvement

The gradual improvement you see in this candle cup took days to weeks. This is a repair, not a full restoration but the customer had a limited amount of money ( several thousand ) to budget for this repair.

silver antique 19th century Eastern European candlesticks with significant damage
antique 19th century candlesticks from Eastern Europe or Poland after repair and polishing standing straight and looking amazing

Antique 19TH-CENTURY Eastern European Candlesticks with significant damage

These candlesticks definitely were dropped, impacting both the base and the top of the candle cup. The customer wanted to limit the investment into the repair to several thousand dollars, so I had to limit my work to the appearance and structure. These candlesticks still have a lot of damage and holes.

19th-century antique Eastern European candlesticks with terrible repair
Eastern European candlesticks antique from Poland after repair and polishing

Antique 19TH-CENTURY Eastern European Candlesticks with ruffled detail & square bases

These candlesticks had a very bad lead solder repair in the middle of the stem that was done before they came to me. I left the old repair alone at the customer’s request and did a modest amount of work on the base and straightening. These candlesticks had cheap replacement candle cups on top.

Please avoid uninformed cheap repairs with low-temperature lead and tin solder that is not appropriate and cause considerable, irreparable, and permanent damage.

examples of bad repair problems

antique Eastern European silver candlestick close-up of poorly done repair with lead solder
phenomenal rebuild of candlestick after the old repair was removed

Antique 19TH-CENTURY Eastern European Candlesticks with Damaged mid-section

Antique Eastern European candlesticks often have old lead solder repairs that are poorly done. This is a devastating example. In this case, the damage was far worse than you can see in the left photo. I had to completely reconstruct this candlestick on the inside and then put it back together so you can not even see all the silver I added to restore the shape. My reconstruction is very strong, unlike the old repair.

This photo looks similar to many of the previous candlestick photos. It is not the same. I have worked on a lot of these candlesticks.

Candlestick is bent over and damaged before repair
silver Eastern European-candlestick-straightened

Antique 19TH-CENTURY Eastern European Candlesticks with ruffled detail & square bases

This candlestick arrived very bent near the base. I was able to straighten it since the bent column was so near the open base. As extraordinary as it may seem, the candlesticks on this page are all over 100 years old. I used to think that they were very rare, but over the years I have seen an extensive variety, all with damage. They commonly have split seams, cracks, and tears in the silver. Treat them gently.

Polishing 800 Silver Candlesticks

800 Silver Candlesticks Polished and straightened

These simple candlesticks arrived leaning to one side with many small dents and dings. After working on the bases, the candlesticks were polished. 800 silver tends to look dull and cloudy as it tarnishes because of the higher copper content and is more difficult to polish. They turned out fantastic. The family story brought them over from their city of Breslau, Germany before WWII.

Note the similarity of these candlesticks above, to the candlesticks below.

Silverplate Candlesticks
from Eastern Europe or Poland

These style of candlesticks waw also manufactured as silverplate with the same type of construction and design aesthetic as 800 silver.

Eastern European Silver plate Candlesticks

Eastern European 19th century candlestick also came in silver plate. The photo above shows the candlestick repaired and newly silver plating The candlesticks are fully restored to the original appearance. Marked: Fraget Plaque. They did not have the matching Bobeche

In the photos above you can see corrosion in the silver plated base, and in the right photo above, you can see the candlestick repaired with sterling silver wire to strengthen the repair. Notice also the motley appearance of the silverplating that is over 100 years old before it was silverplated.

In the photos below, this is the way the candlesticks looked when they arrived, broken and with an irregular tarnished finish. Do not twist this style of candlestick when you are polishing. You can literally rip them apart. They are very delicate. The metal is thin, and the joints weak.

19th Century Silverplate East European Candlestick before and after repair and Polishing

These candlesticks arrived with the leg broken off, and a grungy tarnished surface. First I do the repair, and then I tried very carefully polishing the silver plate candlesticks. The final appearance is a surprise that the silver plating was in such good condition. The customer was very happy with the end results.