Whilst reviewing some Old Bailey court records, I came across an account of a case, heard on the 2nd February 1857, wherein as part of the evidence, a series of tests had been carried out to determine the amount of silver that had been deposited on certain items of flatware.
The comparisons involved the products of two separate companies, the first of a London silver plater, John Bryan, and secondly that of Elkington’s, the leading English silver plating company at this time. John Bryan had made the claim that his products were the equal of Elkington’s finest, it was a claim that was to be found well short of the truth.
The tests were carried out by two independent silver plating concerns. John Round & Son, Tudor Works, Sheffield, and Kemp, Liddell & Co., of London.
The method used to determine the quantity of silver deposited on the flatware in question was to strip the silver from the base metal by immersing the pieces in a solution of oil of vitriol and nitric acid. This practice would remove all traces of the silver and by weighing the items before and after the chemical reaction, a precise amount of deposited silver could be calculated.
The test conducted by Kemp, Liddell & Co., was carried out by Charles Kemp and the results are shown below:
Charles Kemp also noted that the stripping of Bryan’s spoons took 1-2 minutes, but Elkington’s took 20-25 minutes.
The test performed by John Round & Co. was carried out by Edwin Round (John Round’s son and manager) who was assisted by Samuel Shaw, an electro-plater at John Round's. The results are as follows:
The variations in the results found by Kemp and Round are not surprising; the electro-plating industry was still somewhat in its infancy and it shows that perfection in providing a uniform deposit of silver had yet to be achieved even by the likes of Elkingtons. The results do, however, show the extremes of quality of plated goods that were on the market at the time.
Source: Old Bailey Court Records
For full transcript of this trial go to:
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.j ... 570202-350
For weight conversion calculator go to:
http://www.925-1000.com/con_weight.html
24 Grains = 1 Pennyweight (dwt)
Trev.
.