This listing is for a 3 pint coffee, a 2 1/2 pint teapot, a creamer, covered sugar bowl, and spill or waste bowl, nice for Splenda packets or used tea bags. The edge decoration is called gadrooning and the set has real substance. Gorham was an American maker, desirable, not in the ranks with Tiffany, but a status necessity for middle class entertaining. Let’s talk about sterling silver and silver plate, plated silver, silverplate, or whatever you want to call beautiful objects with a base of secondary metal that has had silver attached through some form of plating process. Sterling, established long ago as a standard 925 parts of 1000 has always been a luxury material and was produced in thin walled objects, as well as heavier pieces, 925 all the way through. If hard times were upon you or the thieves showed up in the night, much of that silver was melted for cash. War took its toll, whether you melted willingly for the war effort or had the invaders roll through grabbing anything and everything of value. Expect to find less sterling for these several reasons. Expect that it may have had repairs, and hopefully no one alive will even recall the repairs. When the silversmith puts his mallet to work, no one can tell whether he whacked the object in 1790 or 1970, it would be the quality of the whacking that matters. That’s a lot like saying “solid wood veneer”, a simple mis-use of terms that comes from either ignorance or intent to deceive. Silver plate is valued in small part by its usefulness, but more by form and condition and maker, lastly by potential provenance. Unless you can substantiate a claim that your piece was in the service of someone significant, provenance seldom figures into the pricing. The primary factor in value is the maker, the known workmanship having formed his long standing reputation. The English silversmiths really claim front row seats in the silver smithing community, certainly in sheer numbers. Just so you know, the Great Houses are also filled with plate from good makers. Other European countries produced fine silversmiths, who often packed up and went to England or the US. The French made lovely silver objects, often with a higher content than the familiar 925, however the markings might as well be in Martian for all the good they do, making it harder to be sure about silver from France and mis-identification more than probable. When only a few specialized folks are in the know, investing in high end ANYthing is more of a gamble. Mystery meat might be filet mignon, but with no assurance, who is willing to taste? So we see volumes of great English silver when we look in the right places. Condition is a huge factor. When base metal shows through, maybe a trip to the silver spa is in order. Dents and loose handles? Same answer and the trip is like a 1st class ticket — very pricey. So, the price gap between really near excellent or excellent objects and those with real damage should be enormous. Oh, and newer Chinese or Indian silver is never any better than junk, as the amount of silver plated onto the surface is the bare minimum. Well, we here in the States had good silversmiths also, and companies that produced high quality plate, often made by silversmiths from across the Atlantic. Our prosperous families emulated the aristocracy of our Mother Country and the demand for quality tea/coffee services was high. Gorham is the best known of the big producers of American sterling AND plate. If you hold a piece of Gorham plate, like the teapot connected with this lovely 5 piece set, you feel substance. You might think that a company plating basic metals would make those lesser metals heavy, as the extra weight couldn’t have cost the makers that much more, and that all plate would be hefty, not at all the case. Newer plate, from China and India and the true mass production folks, is lightweight, really feels cheap. These Gorham pieces are HEAVY. Were you to chase down a tray for this set, you would never carry the pots on it. The filled weight would just be too much. You would place the tray on the serving surface and add the individual pieces to it, rolling it to the tea area maybe, but never carrying. The SHELL & GADROON pattern is a staple in English design, centuries old, and coupled here with a paneled body on a gadrooned pedestal. The silver is in excellent condition. This set came from a Carefree, AZ estate. It’s really pretty simple. Don’t just blindly pay when that darned automated screen insists that you pay – pay – pay – NOW – NOW – NOW. Good job, you found the listing. So many of my shoppers are pretty new. Here are a few things that no one will probably tell you, but EVERYone will expect you to know. Customer Service is something that we have a right to expect when we are shoppers. All stores have a CS Department and it is busy all the time. If you require CS in this life, that does NOT mean that life sucks and the store sucks and your experience has been rotten. If it did, there would be no stores open anywhere in the world or else CS would have to put up bullet proof kiosks, right? Maybe the wind crashes a shelf and your item is broken, no longer available. So, the shopping is easy, but check your SPAM/BULK filters for emails that could be important. Most of us are running little part time businesses. We work alone, have no fill in employee, and thanks to the internet, we make things available to folks all over the world, things we could never afford to truck around to some place where you might notice it. We all want things to go smoothly and we’re all learning as we go. OK, now have a good time. Now, you’d think I didn’t have to say this, but read the doggone listing. If I sell you a “pink vase”, don’t say you’re upset because it is pink. If I sell a pattern called “smooth Edwardian” don’t say you don’t want it because it is smooth. Really, I have had this happen. I don’t invent this stuff, it really happens. Oh, and items received broken are a claim, not a return because the item is not as described. If the package is smashed, it is a claim, not a return. We are both victims when there is a claim. Don’t shop to pump up your endorphins and then expect cash back to pay your rent. Wrong items are my headache. Broken items are claims that we work together to deal with. You will receive a merchandise credit, NEVER CASH. If I lose some of you here, well, my work is done. Just in case I have been unclear in any way – 1 in every 20 packages has some sort of damage, maybe something is shattered, maybe a single cup has a handle cracked. This is a Customer Service issue. What earthly good would it do me to get a broken item back. A teensy crack might not show up in a picture that might transfer as 2 inches square on a screen, so let’s whack it beyond usefulness and make it obvious to me. With my type of inventory, each damage claim is dealt with differently, as the situation demands. Have a nice life, but stay out of my store. If you are judgement impaired by whatever legal or illegal chemical means, please be irrational elsewhere. Plenty of stuff out there. The item “Vtg 5 pc GORHAM tea & coffee set, SHELL & GADROON silver plate/plated” is in sale since Sunday, April 1, 2018. This item is in the category “Antiques\Silver\Silverplate\Tea/Coffee Pots & Sets”. The seller is “truckerwoman48″ and is located in San Angelo, Texas. This item can be shipped to United States.
- Composition: Silverplate
- Maker: Gorham
- Type: tea & coffee service
- Age: Post-1940
- Brand: Gorham