After decades of eating with stainless steel, I’m thinking about getting a set of silver cutlery - a Christmas present from me to me. I currently have no silver cutlery at all; not even so much as a teaspoon.
However, a canteen of cutlery is expensive - 4 or 5 figures - so I need to clue myself in before making any purchase, and that’s where you come in!
My immediate thought is that not only should I consider the form and utility (including whether or not the pieces can go in the dishwasher) but the metal. After all, silver is a precious metal.
I do have two books on U.K. hallmarks.
Perhaps Samclem might have some professional insight?
But I’m ignorant, and know that I’m ignorant, so, Dopers, clue me in!
I can only tell you what I know, and that is about the maintenance: it is a pain in the ass to maintain. Ideally it should be stored in silver cloth to minimize tarnishing, but it will still tarnish. You will want to polish it. That is messy and time consuming.
Also, you have to wash it immediately after you use it. No letting it sit for a few hours. No putting it in the dishwasher.
I had a set of silver plate, and after a couple of years I got rid of it. It was beautiful but I just didn’t have the time. And that was when I was young and single and gung-ho about things like that.
It’s really expensive; the Macy’s website lists single place settings for $500-1100 each. And given that perfectly good stainless steel flatware can be bought for about $100 for 8-12 place settings, there’s really no point in buying sterling, except conspicuous consumption.
Plus I doubt that a new set of sterling flatware will hold its value. So when you go to sell, you’ll get perhaps the melt value of it. You’d be better off putting the money in a good stock fund.
I’ll join the chorus trying to talk you out of it. Silver is a fashion statement, not a sensible choice for actual use (which sounds like what you want it for). We got a very nice stainless set. I think it’s better than silver because it’s shinier, more durable, and feels better in use. I don’t like putting silver in my mouth. It’s a strange feeling. My parents have silver but they haven’t used it in a couple of decades at least. I’m sure they’d break it out if the Queen or the Pope visited for dinner, but nobody else is worth the trouble.
I have friends with silver and this is simply not true. The silver goes in the dishwasher like everything else. I’ll note that this is silver, and not silver plate.
As for the tarnishing / polishing, my parents’ teaspoons needed polishing once a year at best, and it wasn’t messy at all.
My mother bought silver cutlery 30 years ago, and we use it 4-5 times per year. She also has a few pieces of silver that get used daily and washed with the stainless stuff. None of it is silver plate.
First, I would recommend trying to find a set that you like at auction or an estate sale. You will get a significantly better price.
If you expect to put it in the dishwasher and keep it looking nice, you have to take special care. If pieces are rubbing against one another, they will scratch. Also, you should not use regular detergent (which is usually too harsh). You need to run the silver on a separate cycle, spread out, using a small amount of gentle detergent. It is also recommended to pre-rinse the silverware before putting it into the dishwasher. The pieces that we use daily and wash without this special care have lost their attractive luster and are heavily scratched. No amount of polishing fixes this.
I think you will be very sorry if you spend a lot of money on silver flatware and find it is not as easy to care for AND keep looking nice as you think.
If anyone is interested, I emailed Goldsmiths’ Hall in London and they recommended ‘Silver flatware: English, Irish and Scottish 1660-1980’ (Woodbridge, Antique Collectors’ club, 1983. ISBN: 0-907462-35-9. So I’ve ordered it from Amazon.