What are these Bruckmann pieces?

[niceguy1]

Hello

What are these? Perhaps knife rests? They are hallmarked BRUCKMANN 90 12. Measures 11 cm long.

And are they silver or plated?

Thanks in advance.

[JLDoggett]

They do appear to be knife rests. Of less than sterling quality, coin/90% perhaps...

[dognose]

They will be plated. To understand the German dual-numbering system see:

http://www.925-1000.com/a_platenumbers.html

Trev.

[niceguy1]

Thanks JL & Trev for your help.

[DianaGaleM]

Yes, silver-plated knife banks. Try a web image search on "messerbank." It was common for vintage German silverware patterns to have a matching knife bank.

[niceguy1]

Thank you.

Now, would the 12 mean there are 12 grams of silver on each one or for all 6 together?

[dognose]

12 grams on the set.

Trev.

[DianaGaleM]

I have found "90" to be by far the most common thickness on vintage German silver-plated flatware, though I've seen it range from 40 to 150. The difference is huge on a long-used (old) piece: 40 pieces are apt to have the base metal showing widely through on wear spots while 150 pieces just as old show no signs of wearing through, at all.

The 12 means 12 grams of silver on a dozen pieces. For comparison, I have some German "90" teaspoons and pastry forks stamped 15 to 18, and some demitasse spoons stamped 8 or 9. The dinner knife handles I have range from 21 to 27.

A "standard plate lot" is 12 table/dinner forks and 12 table/soup spoons, so it follows that individual "90" dinner forks and soup spoons are marked 90-45.

With large pieces, the number refers to the number of grams for that one piece, for example, a gravy ladle may be 3, a soup ladle 5 or 8.