My inner Downton Abbey

Funny how I said there may not be many posts with photos and guess what…. yeah. Anyhoo….

So my parents are going to move soonish and wanted my sister and I to rummage through the family valuables and figure out what we wanted and what would be tossed or sold or whatever.

My sister didn’t take too much but when I was shown all the silver my inner anglophile went swooning. Of course all the classic stories and British tv shows I know and love came to mind with grand estates, maids, servants and the whole lot. I was a time warp of about 300 years in my head. All the old ideals of family fortunes and valuables invested in sterling silver, silver plate, jewels and gold of dead relatives and even the solid brass candlesticks were swimming before my eyes. Well, we had all but the solid brass candlesticks to go through in the basement on Saturday. Actually the brass was mostly little elf-like figurines I’d rescued over a decade ago when my Pop-pop died, but ended up giving part of it back to mom when she saw what I had.

Driving home that night I felt like some awkward modern version of an Edwardian burglar with a Tiffany lamp, silverplate tea service and several pounds of solid silverware in plastic bags on the car seats.

So what did I come away with? The above photo is the sugar and creamer of a full tea service I took. There is a tea pot, coffee pot, and large tray but I didn’t have much time this morning for photographing everything. The service was used by my grandparents on my mom’s side of the family and is silverplate. The service was made around 1923-1925 in Sheffield, England from the Harrison Bros and Howson Company, which I found out took over the previous Samson and Sons company, who were official cutlers to the King (Edward). The set isn’t in great condition because some of the silver is coming off the tray and tea pot. The inside of the coffee pot is a mess from all the acid of coffee over the years, but in time I may have it restored. The tray is silver plated copper and was made around the 1950s to be a compliment to the tea service set.

Next is the silverware set. This was also used by my mom’s parents regularly, but eventually got pushed off as being “special occasion” silverware only. The majority of it is solid sterling silver. The only stainless steel parts are the dinner and butter knife blades, the cake/pie server blade, and the master butter knife blade. The handles to all those items are hollow sterling silver. I have a 5 piece 12 count serving set plus butter knives, iced tea spoons and some hostess serving pieces made by Towle in the King Richard design, which was first issued in 1932. I am missing one salad fork, but with all the extras I’ve got 82 pieces.  The top photo shows the design, the second (left) shows a salad fork, dinner spoon, dinner fork, dinner knife, teaspoon, butter knife, and an olive/pickle fork. The third (right) photo shows the difference of the silverware vs my usual stainless steal flatware with the last being a difference of detail shot. It’s really amazing how there was a utensil for every. piece. of food. on the. plate.

I’m very tempted to keep this and use it regularly, but then I think that’s quite pretentious and ridiculous of me. It’s got an allure in that – I can use REAL silverware, but also, is it necessary? Yes, it’s grand and the set is gorgeous and shiny and pretty and has a wonderful weight in the hand, but why? To use it based solely on principle that I CAN use it and it was meant to be used even though I’ve got a perfectly good set of stainless steel flatware already? Mom and dad gave me this stuff knowing I might sell it (they are going to sell the rest that Kim and I didn’t take anyway) and after doing some online research, this silverware set is worth quite a bit of money. I spent yesterday polishing it and realized that the upkeep for such stuff is tremendous (that and I don’t think I would’ve been a very good maid in service).  I most likely will set the silverware, but I intend on keeping the tea service no matter what because it was regularly used (more so than the silverware) and has more sentimental value to the family.

Lastly, I took this Tiffany lamp. It’s not a real Tiffany lamp, but is in the tiffany style with a beautiful butterfly/flower motif on the shade. It’s a lot nicer than any of the other lamps I’ve got and I love the little pull strings. Zach was ready to kill me when he saw I brought another lamp home. I’ve got a bit of a problem with lamps.  I’ve got 8 lamps in our tiny apartment although I told him I’d get rid of one since I brought this one home.

Amuse me with stories of your family valuables and treasures! I eat this stuff up. Eat. It. Up!