The oldest silver serving dishes designed for use rather than display are simple, with moulded or gadrooned rims. Display pieces are often silver gilt, with elaborate chased and applied strapwork and lobbing. Most date from the 17th century, although similar ones continued to be made until the early l9th century, mainly for ceremonial services.

Sets of silver plates and platters are very expensive, even if Victorian, but single specimens can be found quite easily at about £250 for a typical so in (25 cm) plate. Rarer items include strawberry dishes, venison dishes, and mazarines — dish liners pierced with hand-sawn arabesques to allow cooking liquids to drain away. Large domed covers for meat platters were first made in the early loth century. Most are in Old Sheffield plate or in electroplate, and are fairly cheap at £100- £300 for a single cover. Sets of three or more, ranging in size from around 12 to 25 in (30-53 cm), are now often bought to hang as wall decorations and are more expensive.

Tureens evolved from deep serving bowls with covers, and followed current stylistic fashions in design and decoration. The first were circular and quite plain, but by the early 18th century they were oval and more ornate with elaborate cast handles. Tureens are expensive, ranging in price from £1 000-£1500 for a lightweight Edwardian copy to many thousands for a good i8th-century piece.

Antique Collection

Entrée dishes date from the reign of George II. Most were made with a detachable handle, so that the lid could be used for serving cold foods. Silver examples are quite scarce, fetching f500-£800 apiece, but Old Sheffield plate specimens are still easily found for £250-£350 a pair in good condition. They often come with a detachable hot-water.

SALVERS AND TRAYS

Early salvers are circular on a trumpet-shaped base. By about 1716 this was replaced by three or more smaller feet on the underside of the rim, a type that has persisted to the present day. While most of the earliest salvers were undecorated, silversmiths soon realised that the flat surface was ideal for display pieces with chased or engraved decoration. In the Regency period, rounded oblong salvers appeared, on paw feet and with gadroon and shell borders. After the mid-19th century, silversmiths merely reproduced earlier styles, often with increasingly elaborate decoration. Early salvers currently sell for £3000- £8000, or more if particularly large and fine. Mid.m8th.century examples cost £1500£2500. George III and Regency specimens are only slightly cheaper at between £1000 and £1500. Victorian salvers can be found for £600-£800. Single waiters — small salvers less than 9 in (23 cm) across — are easily found and cost £300-£600 for a good a8th-century example, but sets of salvers and matching waiters are scarce and very expensive.

The term ‘tray’ originally referred to large, heavy, oval or 0blong salvers, on feet so they were easy to pick up. Trays with handles appeared in the 1750s, and lighter trays with pierced galleries around 1750. They were too flimsy to carry substantial weights, so were strengthened with wooden inserts. By the 177os the tray as we know it today had evolved. Trays became increasingly elaborate up to about £830, but from the mid- 19th century most are lightweight adaptations of earlier styles. Trays with inscriptions are hard to sell and cost less than blank trays.

OTHER SERVING DISHES

With the Victorian age came a host of dishes for specific purposes. These included ovoid revolving-top breakfast dishes, muffineers, biscuit barrels and biscuit warmers, asparagus dishes and strawberry sets. Prices for most of these start at around £100 in electroplate; silver examples are rarer and more expensive. Egg boilers fitted with a tiny spirit lamp range widely in price from ovoid electroplated examples with bird finials for £1 00-£150 to rarer silver ones with an egg timer for £1000.

The first butter dishes were made in the early 18th century in the form of a shell. G0od cast pairs can fetch £1000-£2000, but by the 1750s most were of sheet metal. Victorian and later pairs sell for £150-£300. Covered butter dishes with a cow finial appeared in the late 18th century and sell for £300-£500.

The earliest cake and bread baskets and bonbon dishes also date from the early 18th century and can fetch as much as £30,000. These are usually oval or round with a central cast handle, or in the form of shells on dolphin bases. Baskets from the mid-century are much lighter in construction; both chased and wirework examples sell for £2000-£3000, if in good condition. Solid oblong baskets from the Regency period and slightly later circular baskets on domed pedestal bases sell for £1000-£2000. After about 1890 all baskets became increasingly flimsy, except for a few heavy-gauge reproductions of earlier styles.

Toast racks made from drawn wire date from the 1770s, but most early examples are in poor condition. Folding and telescopic specimens, usually in Old Sheffield plate, are quite scarce today. By the early 19th century sturdier examples in silver were fashionable, with gadrooned rims and cast feet. Late Victorian novelty toast racks formed from crossed tennis racquets, cricket bats or golf clubs are sought after by sports enthusiasts.

Silver sauceboats appeared in the early 18th century. The earliest have a lip at either end and two cast scroll handles to the sides; they can cost £6000-£3000 a pair, or more. Single-lipped sauceboats date from about 1730. Despite being prone to damage, they now sell for £1500-£2000 a pair, although singles are much cheaper. Most modern sauceboats reproduce earlier styles. However, Viners of Sheffield made a good number in Art Deco style, which now sell for £600-£650 per pair with matching ladles and original case.

A late 18th-century invention was the lidded gravy jug, or Argyle, with a hot-water compartment to keep the gravy warm. Many have a spout that rises from the bottom, so that the fat at the top does not pour off.

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Silver Eating and Serving Tableware