Help Please - Unmarked Small Cream Jug - Silver or Plate?

[seanduxbury]

Hi Everyone. This is my first post to this forum so I hope I have posted to the correct subject area. I found this small cream jug (it measures 8 cms high x 10 cms across at the widest part - end of handle to edge of spout, and weighs almost 100 gms) in the North West of England - very black, tarnished and unloved. I've polished as best I can, but I cannot find any marks that help to identify whether or not this is silver or plate, maker or date and am hoping that someone may either recognise it or point me in the right direction for further help. The only reason I suspect it may be silver rather than plate is that I have handled a number of plate items in the past and have always found marks or a little wear - this does not appear to have any wear despite plenty of dings, one large dent at the top and and a small 2 mm break at the top edge. The decoration around the top third of the jug is chased (I could be wrong but it does appear to be punched rather than etched). The third image shows what appears to be some restoration on the inside of the rim and the extent of the dents. Any help would be much appreciated. Many Thanks

[Hose_dk]

difficult to say. No marks most likely not silver.
Do you see any green tarnish? before cleaning = that is almost sure the base material that becomes green (cupper)

You have cleaned. Silver test with asid would be my next moove.
You proberly do not have any aisd - instead try rubbing your fingers to the metal. Smell - if silver no smell. If plated you could smell like rotten eg.

warm water - take one in silver and one you test. Add them into warm water and feel the difference in how the heat comes toward your fingers. You put 1 cm into hot water - 2 similar items. The heat travelles fastest when silver.

smell - does it smell like silver?

Good advice difficult via www

[seanduxbury]

Thanks for the advise - I've had the jug tested and it has been confirmed as Continental Silver. Now I need to find out when and where it might be from. Anyone any ideas

[seanduxbury]

I've had this reply from one of the curators at the Birmingham Museum in the UK about this jug.

Just from looking at the images, I would say that your jug probably dates to the first decade or so of the 19th century. I don't think you will everbe able to track down a maker. Its relatively low-grade silver content, its small size and the impressed decoration (known as wrigglework, and more usually associated with the decoration of pewter and other white-metal alloys) all suggest that it was quite cheaply made. I would imagine that it was a fairing - sold by an itinerant vendor at one of the big fairs. Cheap silver thimbles, boxes, novelty miniatures and other small wares were very popular merchandise, some imported and some made locally. It would not have been possible officially to sell your jug in Britain as being made of silver in those days, since it was illegal to sell silver which was below the 925 sterling standard - or at least, you weren't allowed to call it 'silver'; and it could not have been marked by any Assay office or silversmith. Anonymous or not, it is a very pretty little jug. There were some huge country fairs in the North West. I wonder if it was sold at one of them.

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[quoti]

Could you do a simple density test? You'd need a carefully graduated beaker marked in mL in which the jug would fit, and some water. You first weigh the item dry and in grams as accurately as possible. Fill the beaker with enough water that the item will be submerged when you place it in: note the water level. Place the item in the water so that it is completely submerged and note the new water level. The difference in water levels is the displacement in mL (math: final water level minus intial water level = displacement). You then divide the grams weight by the mL displacement, and if it is sterling, you should get a number very close to 10.2 - 10.3 on your calculator (meaning that 10.2 gm of sterling displaces 1 mL of water).

Silverplated items are often of nickel silver alloy (8.4-8.9 density), copper (8.9 density), zinc (7.1 density), or pewter/tin (7.3 or so), which as you can see would be easy to spot because of much lower density than sterling. The only base metals that would be higher than the 10.2-10.3 density of sterling that might be plated are rather unlikely metals: lead (11.3) and tungsten (19.3).

If you can get a really clearly marked beaker and a good gram scale (at least two decimal places), then this is the simplest way to see, and it will not hurt or damage the piece at all. If you have a university nearby, you might just take to the chemistry department and see if a student would like to determine the density for you (I've done that at my school before!). It is bizarre that's it not marked. Let us know what happens.