Silverplate Repair & Restoration
Repair and Silver Plating
Baby Bacchus Punch Bowl
This punch bowl was repaired first. There were a number of dents, the lid was bent and the Bacchus was missing the whip which I made from sterling wire to duplicate (as best possible) from the illustration shown below. The lid of this vessel is mounted with a Baby Bacchus seated astride a bottle. Note: The illustration (shown below) from 1876 does slightly differ from the punch bowl above.
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The original illustration of this Baby Bacchus punch bowl from a 19th-century catalog was found on Wikipedia. Punch Bowl and Goblets, THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. exhibited by the Middletown Plate Company, of Connecticut.
The original goblets had broken off long ago. You can see the nubs (right behind the leaves.) I ground down the original nubs. The customer found sterling cups for a replacement which were soldered on after new silver plating.
19TH-CENTURY ANTIQUE silver plateD NICKEL SILVER Fruit basket WITH HANDLE
This fruit basket was nickel silver. Nickel silver is another name for white brass. It contains no silver but it is a metal often used for 19th-century European silver plate. The fact that it was nickel silver was a surprise and made it extremely difficult to straighten because the metal was so hard. After it was straightened it was silver plated. I do not do silver plating but will take items to a local silver plating business for my customers. Silver plating is very expensive in a time that protects the environment. Forty years ago, they just threw the plating baths containing harmful chemicals into the dirt. Nowadays, every drop of water and rag is treated as hazardous waste and disposed of carefully. This repair took multiple steps and almost a year to complete but the results were fantastic.
Silver plate gravy Boat restored with sterling ladle
The silver plate gravy boat is the style where the boat is permanently attached to the tray. Though the base metal was nickel silver (which is very hard and strong), the gravy boat arrived very bent and lopsided. It was straightened out before the new silver plating was done. The new silver plating looks fabulous and represents a significant restoration of this family heirloom. The ladle was sterling silver so it was polished. Though not a matching set, the gravy boat and ladle have been used together for generations.
19TH-CENTURY silver plate basket
Sometimes, I can work on silver plate objects without damaging the silver plating. The left photo shows this 19th-century silver plate basket after repair. It looks OK but the plating was flaking off and the silver plating was worn, which is to be expected for an object over 125- 150 years old. It is totally fine if the customer wants to preserve the “shabby chic” of worn silver plate, but this customer wanted to fully restore this antique silver plated basket (right photo). New silver plating does not reduce the value of silver plated objects.
Silver plate ladle before and after new silver plating
If you look at the left photos, the ladle’s silver plating is worn. You can see this around the edge of the ladle cup and on the back of the ladle cup. The dark mark is where the silver plating is worn down to the copper base metal. Wear like this is an obvious indication that an object is silver plated (if it is not marked.) The right photo is after plating.
Silver plate late 19th-century/ early 20th-Century teapot
Dents were removed from this teapot, and the lid and top of the teapot were reshaped before new silver plating. The surface of this teapot turned out close to perfect.
Silver Plate Repair Without Plating
LAte 19TH-CENTURY Silver Plated White metal Soup Tureen
The above soup tureen has two ladies in Greek-style gowns, an eagle on the lid, claw feet, and a lower platform with a deer. I find this combination of democratic symbols and hunting motif to be quite charming and whimsical. The main problems with this soup tureen were legs that had been pushed in causing dents and making the bowl lean to one side, poorly done previous repairs to reattach the platform with the deer, and bent side handles preventing the lid from being removed. The lower platform had to have the old messy repair removed and cleaned up. I then soldered it back in place and hid the repair with sterling silver. I was able to adjust the position of the ladies/handles so that the heads were no longer blocking the removal of the lid. It was challenging to push out the dents caused by the legs but I was able to carefully improve it and make the tureen sit more evenly. You can see the previous condition in the before photo to the right. I gave it a final polishing and the customer was very pleased with the results. At all times I was careful of the silver plating to preserve the original finish.
Silver Plate 19th-century cardholder broken and after repair
The first photo (left photo) shows this 19th-century cardholder actually taped together with scotch tape. It had so many broken parts it might have been hard for me to figure out how it went together. I soldered each of the breaks very carefully to preserve the silver plating, and then it was polished. It is hard to know before I start if there is enough plating left to polish after the repair. This antique silver plate turned out fabulous!
Silver Plate Urn before and after repair and polishing
It is hard to believe that this is the same urn. This silver plate urn arrived broken in four pieces (left photo.) The main body had broken from the base. The decorative finial had broken off the lid. Everything was repaired very carefully to preserve the silver plating and then polished.
Silverplate caster stand before and after repair
Antique silver plate castor stands are just beautiful with interesting Victorian ornamentation, but they are also very fragile. Most of the Victorian Caster Stands are white metal which is very soft. Over time the metal fatigues or gets a little wonky. In this example, the main stem broke near the base at an indentation in the metal. I repaired the break concealing the repair with sterling silver wire. This also reinforced and strengthened the repair.
By using sterling silver for the repair it was not necessary to replate this castor stand. When working on antique silver plate, my goal is to do the repairs without damaging the silver plating. There are no parts available for this 19th-century silver plate so I do all the repairs in sterling silver to avoid new silver plating, if possible.
CASTER STAND REPAIRed AND POLISHED “AS IS”
This castor stand was repaired as best as possible. I added sterling silver at the breakpoints for strength and to reinforce the repair. Then the silver plating was polished “as is.” In the photos, you can see the imperfections and wear in the silver plating. Though vastly improved in appearance, the silver plating is far from perfect. There is still the option of new silver plating.