Old Italian 800 silver tea service archived

Call the Newark Museum?

No idea, but I'd love to see some pictures.

I agree with Joy about the Newark museum. I am FB friends with the museum, and the head curator is a very interesting guy.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-800-Silver-Italian-Tea-Coffee-Service-125-Troy-Ounces-Useable-Scrap-/161565754725?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item259e11c565

You might try Nye & Company: http://nyeandcompany.com/. Also, Oksenhorn Jewelers in Millburn.

send photos to Rago or Doyle's or Christie's. if they are interested they will tell you what they might get for it at auction. Silver is down now, so it might not be a good time to sell, but if the pattern is interesting, you still might get a good price. I sold a silverplated tea set for $580 recently on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fabulous-Georgian-solid-silver-teapot-Pheasant-head-spout-armorial-800g-Rare-/191430592922?pt=UK_Antiques_Silverware_RL&hash=item2c9227099a

Just came home to all these great suggestions--thanks! I'll have to ask my mother in the morning if she has a picture she can send me. I have to look at the bottom again next time I'm at her house. I can't remember whether it was made by Proserpio Achille in Milan, or made by someone else for them. This is not the same thing, but the same type of thing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beautiful-Proserpio-Achille-Italian-800-Silver-Tea-Set-Circa-1937-/151243874061?nma=true&si=PfMTfwNJUt7Icg8zvgWaizy0ijM%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

They asked a lot and didn't get it, so it doesn't give me any kind of data point.

This set is also by the same silversmith:
http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20892/lot/7324/

The thing that is strange is that she thinks it belonged to her Jewish relatives from Germany. The earliest dates for this maker are around 1937, and she can't imagine her family was buying silver tea sets then, so it's kind of a mystery. She had thought it was older.

First question is to find out if it is sterling or silver plate?

The 800 means the content is 80% silver (800 parts per 1,000). As far as I can tell, that is typical of a lot of European stuff. I believe that sterling is 925. Silver plate is something else altogether. The value of the silver, if we're just talking about the silver, would be 80% of the value of 999 silver, I guess.

Wow, these pictures take me waaaaay back to childhood when it seems every family we visited had one of these silver sets. I don't remember anyone ever using them when we were visiting, and we certainly didn't have one!

zucca - It looks as if the set sold by Bonhams was sold based on it's silver price. The set was sold January 13, 2013. It weighed 86 troy ozs. or 94.34 ozs. 80% of 94.34 is 75.47. The price of silver on Jan. 13, 2013 was about $30/oz. 30 x 75.47 = $2264, and the set sold for $2250.

The spot price for silver on Friday was $18.36.

Interesting calculation, @cramer. My mother was offered less than that set sold for for hers, but more, likely, than the current silver-only price would be. Guess I need to get her to send me some pictures and start making some calls.

I would hold on to it for an investment until silver goes back up, unless she really needs the money now.If an auction house will sell it, I would consider trying on ebay first. (putting a high Buy it Now price and accepting offers, or starting the auction at a high price).
I recently sold a set of Flatware with Rago's. The buyer paid $6,500 and I got $4,500.
so the auction house got $2,000

Wow--that's interesting information, @crazy_quilter. Thank you for that! She doesn't have to sell it now--she's just trying to take of take-care able things. If going the auction route, I guess one just has to try to figure out whether an auction house can get considerably more than one would get on eBay, though a high starting bid or reserve would make it easy enough to try eBay.

Oy. I have a silver coffee and tea service to sell. It's beautiful, so I hate the idea that it may be scrapped but no one in my family would use it. We now are discussing holding it until the price of silver goes up or I win the lottery and have nothing else to do but sit in my drawing room and have tea parties with my cats.

hauscat, please invite me to any cat tea parties. Thank you. : - )

Definitely, @jasper. @zucca too for starting this useful thread.

My sister tells me she doesn't want to wait to sell (fixing up my late cousin's home has been costly.) What is my next step? @zucca - do u want me to start my own thread? I don't want to hijack yours.

FWIW, the price of silver has been rising since the beginning of the year. Here's a chart:

http://www.goldsilversupply.com/current-prices/daily-silver-chart

@hauscat, hijack away!

Maybe we can figure it out together in one thread.

@zucca - I don't think we are in the same league. My quick research shows I probably have a silver-plated service. Sure is pretty.

F B Rogers Pattern 2377

this one has two more pieces than yours, @hauscat and sold for $399 http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-PC-GORGEOUS-ANTIQUE-1883-F-B-ROGERS-SILVERPLATE-TEA-amp-COFFEE-SET-/171640716745?pt=Antiques_Silver&hash=item27f6957dc9&nma=true&si=WqcW2I55NEeqYo2lGJ%252B81CZJKVs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

That's beautiful! Hoping my mom will photograph hers tomorrow so I can post here.

Here's my mom's:

very pretty!
would she be willing to photograph the marks on it?

Oh, that's really nice.

I took a photograph of the marks a couple months ago. I've blown it up here, but it's not the best, and our eyes aren't good enough to read the actual marks. Must put the teenagers on it next time!

It definitely says Flli Peruzzi, 800, and I think 240 MI, which, according to this website (http://www.silvercollection.it/SILVERSMITHSMI2.html) means it was made by Proserpio Achille for Fratelli Peruzzi (which still exists: http://www.fratelliperuzzi.it/) in Milan. I wonder if Peruzzi would know anything about the value of it (and how to get that value for it).

The strange thing is that according to the makers' marks website, this mark is from 1937 forward. My mom had always assumed that this set had been in the family before they immigrated here (and is surprised that they would have been in a position to buy it after).

This is fun--maybe we need to morph this thread into an MOL Antiques Roadshow.

@zucca - that set is indeed lovely - I simply adore the animal heads!

Ugh--I know! By the time we have this figured out, we won't be able to part with it. I need a house with more display surfaces (and someone to polish the silver). Hah!