My mom (the one with 12 sets of dishes) also had a ton of flatware of all kinds. We have two sets we kept.
A service for 12 with a bunch of different pieces in each place setting plus serving pieces of gorham sterling Melrose pattern. It’s very nice. Sort of fancy in a sterling silver sort of way. We use it on all holidays and special dinners. Our DD wants it…and that’s fine!
The other set is a service for 6 of International Prelude. It’s not nearly as ornate. This will go to our son if he wants it.
There is space in the Prelude silver box, and my mom filled it with sterling teaspoons from the late 1800’s each with the year and the name “Sarah” which is not anyone’s name in this family. She also had at least a dozen sugar shells, also sterling. We use one. I keep saying I’m going to make the rest into Christmas ornaments or bracelets.
We also had three or four sets of silver plate which we recently donated. And at least 6 sets of stainless…we gave those away to the college grads.
Funny…good thing we took our time getting rid of some of it. A friend hosted her kid’s rehearsal dinner for 100 and sent an email out to a bunch of friends seeking eating utensils. We provided almost all of them…and all of the serving pieces.
Mine - Gorham Baronial, picked out in my mid-teens and still really like it.
Mother-in-law’s - Oneida Stanton Hall
Paternal Grandmother’s - Gorham Buttercup
…
stainless - Towle Beaded Antique, a wedding gift, looks like new
I can’t remember the last time we used the stainless to eat at the table, and we eat at the table every day. At least 20 years? I use the stainless while I’m cooking, especially the spoons. We used it everyday with young children.
Pre-pandemic, we’d do two or three big garden parties a year and I’d use all the silver. There would be tables set up for 4 or 6 and the silver on each table would match. With all the sets and extra pieces, there are more than 36 place settings. And I have a few child sized/youth place settings, which were always handy for holidays, though once a visiting seven year old demanded he get the grown up utensils, since he wasn’t a baby, and I just switched with him. lol
eta: I’m keeping it. Kids say they want it… “someday”
Oh, I kept the silver. That was an easy decision for me. It takes less space and has intrinsic value.
I have twelve five-place settings of Towle Old Master that belonged to my mother. Because I had that, I did not register for sterling when I married. I think I have 16 iced tea spoons. I also have some tiny forks? Seafood forks maybe? I’m not really sure. I also have the typical serving pieces in Old Master and a smattering of unusual and older sterling serving pieces in different patterns.
My mother also had a sterling tea and coffee service which I got rid of for melt value. Alas, the tray that held it was plate.
There is no more sterling to be had as mother-in-law doesn’t own any. Made some snide comment about, “no one did that when I got married.” Not true, but she grew up pretty poor, so I am sure that was true for her circle. If she did have any it would rightly (IMO) go to her daughter anyway.
I have the my parents’ silver. I only registered for silver plated because my mom told me her wedding silver was coming. I’ll probably ditch our wedding silver plated set soon. My parents had a second set of silver that is with my brother.
Our sterling is the most precious thing we own. It was given to us as a wedding present by an elderly woman who was a patron of DH’s father’s art and who was “adopted” by their family as she was the last of her line and had none of her own. We’re astonished to this day that she gave us her family silver, but she was divesting her possessions and didn’t want to be surrounded by “old” things she didn’t use anymore.
The pattern is Keystone by Whiting. Each piece is stamped “Sep 7 1869.” The factory and the molds for this pattern were destroyed in a fire in 1875 which we learned when we attempted to locate more knives. We took a piece to the antiques and estate jewelry department at the flagship Marshall Field’s when we moved to downtown Chicago shortly after our marriage in ’81. The man behind the counter asked how many pieces we had, and we told him flatware for eight and a few serving pieces, but only four knives. He said he’d very much like to see the whole set and that MF would be happy to buy everything we had if we were interested in selling. We brought the whole set over, and he told us that what we had was a luncheon set and that having so many pieces was remarkable and having any knives at all was unusual as, at the time these were made, even the blades were sterling which made them too soft to survive long use. We were happy to know the history but had no intention of selling, just insuring.
The salts/spoons at the bottom of the picture are not part of this set but pieces we picked up in our many antiquing jaunts during our Boston years. We have eight of those tiny, gold-bowl spoons. We learned that these are hard to find because they are popular with the cocaine-sniffing crowd. Who knew?
We have collected a lot of silver over the years and have another set that we use more frequently, but we’ll never part with this one.
I was never a fan of my mom’s taste, except for her silver. I don’t think I can find a picture , but it had a daffodil on the bottom. So, it had a symmetrical shape, but the curvy flower gave it a uniqueness.
So my mom died suddenly. My sister said I had given my approval to give the silver to my cousin. (I have no such memory.). At formal meals, cousin uses it and keeps it polished. That makes me happy, and I’m sure her daughter will love it far more than my son.
How about silver tea services? I have one that was given to my great-grandmother for her wedding in, I think, 1906. I’m tempted to sell it because my sister who is mom’s heir needs the money. at this point, it is probably worth more melted down (probably ten pounds of it at least), but I’d be happier to sell to someone who wants to keep it. Don’t know how to figure out its actual worth. We also have piles of random servingware pieces that can go whenever I can get to a silver buyer.
I have my mom’s silverplate silverware; that i’ll keep in case I should ever entertain again.
I have 12 place settings of Lunt Belevedere along with a number of serving pieces. My mother had 8 place settings plus extra spoons & serving pieces of Towle Madeira, which is now mine. My intent had been to pass a set to each child at some point and just use my Towle Gold Beaded Antique stainless which has been the most fabulous choice off my bridal registry. However, my former MIL decided to buy a deceased friend’s sterling service for D as a wedding present, so not sure she will want one of my sets. I’m sure it will stay in the family one way or the other and I wouldn’t consider getting rid of it. I would sell off my good china, much unused since my wedding in 1979, in a heartbeat.
@Singersmom07 Kildare is my pattern too! I love it and we use it pretty regularly. I still buy it when I find a really good deal on ebay. I have enough that my kids can split it and still have big parties.
DD has expressed interest in some of it at least.
