Towle Old Colonial - Plate or Sterling?

[larrywseale]

Hello:

I have a bit of a dilemma. I have a Towle Old Colonial Preserve spoon that may or may not be sterling because it has no markings other than Towle on the back of the handle near the bowl. The rest of the set was marked sterling so no problem there.

I checked at replacements.com and they do have a category for Old Colonial silverplate but have no pieces in the category and I don't think they're the definitive expert. It also seems odd that a set would have 100 pieces of sterling & one silverplate but what do I know?

I certainly don't want to acid test it because it's in pristine condition but I am looking for a way to determine if it's plate or sterling. Does anyone know if Towle ever produced any pieces that weren't marked or another way to determine what it is without ruining it?

My piece weighs 66.4 grams and if I had a marked sterling piece to compare it to, that might give me an answer.

Any help appreciated.

[larrywseale]

P.S. I've searched a bit and eBay does have a number of "Sterling" Old Colonial preserve spoons listed. None of the listing give a weight & some describe the spoons as having the old marks "Pat. 1895, Towle Hallmark & Sterling (or 925/100)" I've tried to narrow it down by length, my spoon measures 7 7/8", but the listings claim the spoons measure anywhere from "a hair over 7 inches" to 8". Sigh!

[dognose]

Hi Larry,

Try Salmoned's specific gravity test.

Details can be found at: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=11330&p=25002#p25002

Trev.

[larrywseale]

Thank you. I actually seem to recall doing something like this in a chemistry course 40 years ago :-)

Of course, my jewelers scale is battery so it look like i need to to find a balance beam type.

Thanks again

[larrywseale]

Hmmmm - pondering the specific gravity test, do you see any problem with sealing my scale in a ZIP-LOCK bag (other than the bag leaking) and performing the test?

[larrywseale]

After removing all the air from the bag!

[larrywseale]

Well, other than my scale wanting to float it seems like it might have worked.

Put the scale in the bag and weighted it in and out of the water setting the tare since the bag has some weight & it's different in and out of water.

Out of water - 64.4 grams
In water - 58 grams

Am I correct that 64.4/6.4 = 10.0625 gives me the specific gravity?

I found a chart at http://www.hauserandmiller.com/reference/melting.html and it gives the specific gravity of silver as 10.49 & sterling as 10.36. I guess that would change a little depending on the actual composition of the of the 7.5% and my measurements were more for a "test" than accuracy. I need to weight the bag down so it doesn't try to float.

Since it's not "super" accurate, I can weigh a piece of Towle Old Colonial that's marked as sterling, compare the two results and if they reasonably close, assume the spoon is sterling (assuming the same alloy in both pieces)? I'll look for a balance beam but anyone see anything wrong with what I did?

[salmoned]

Yes, your scale was not made to accurately weigh anything whilst in a bag in water. There are some other techniques you could use.

1) If you can suspend the object beneath the scale with fishing line and a 'C' shaped piece of stiff wire (a wire clothes hanger, for instance) balanced on the scale surface, then you may weigh that entire assembly and subtract from that the weight of the assembly with the object suspended in water (I usually use a pitcher of water on a chair under the table), then you may determine the volume of the object.

2) If you can weigh a container of water and then suspend the object in that water and reweigh it, the difference would equate to the volume of water displaced.

[larrywseale]

Thank you very much.

I decided to solve the problem the correct way - My Ohaus cent-o-gram scale is on it's way.

The advice & information is great!