I was watching a movie that mentioned silver flatware and wondered how much they cost compared to stainless steel flatware sets.
the prices are insane, around $10,000 for a set.
So I looked it up and silver is currently at about $0.77 a gram. if you assume a piece of flatware is 25 grams or so that means it’s about $20 in silver for a fork or spoon. the density of silver isn’t much different than stainless steel either, it isn’t like a fork made of silver is 300 grams.
So shouldn’t a set of maybe 50 pieces be closer to $1000? why do they cost so much? is it just lack of demand and low supply?
Not quite sure where you’re looking to find those kind of prices, but a cursory search on Etsy gives quite a few results that cost much less than 10K and some of them are antiques even.
Well, for starters silverware weighs more than that. I just weighed a stainless steel butter knife and it was 110 grams. Silver is about 25% denser than stainless. Figure on average, around 100-125 grams per piece.
Let’s do some math. Here’s a mid-range, mass produced stainless steel set of 20 pieces for $150 retail.
Let’s assume that’s 2000 grams of 18/8 stainless. With stainless running around $1 per pound, that’s about $4.50 in raw material. So a about a 3400% markup over the wholesales material cost.
Now let’s figure you wanted to equivalent of sterling silver. That’s about 2500 grams of sterling which at $0.77 a gram is $1925 in raw materials. Apply a 3400% markup and you’re looking at ~$65,000, so you’re getting that sterling silver flatware at a steal (heh).
When you consider that the economies of scale for Crate and Barrel are really helping them with their costs, the same can’t be said for any sterling silver maker…you’re really getting an even better deal.
A contrary data point: when my mother died in 2013, leaving a lot of rather nice antiques, china place settings, and silver flatware, I visited a recommended fine arts/antiques dealer to determine what to do with things like her china and silver.
I was told that silver flatware no longer has value in excess of its raw value as metal, because people are not interested in acquiring and using fine silverware the way they used to be. The dealer told me that all I would get for the silverware was its value as metal.
It worked out quite well for me as I ended up keeping all the silver, thus making it easy to give our everyday stainless cutlery to my husband when we got divorced. I now dine every day using the beautiful silverware my mother (and grandparents, as she had lots of their stuff too) left behind. It’s really spectacularly beautiful and no harder to care for than stainless, so why not?
I’d suggest that people who own, sell, or want a silver flatware set aren’t looking at the price of silver on the market. They’re looking at what owning such a set represents. For many, especially those who grew up in the 50s and 60s, it represents class and sentimentality and similar.
My mother had such a set. It was used perhaps twice a year, at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was impressed upon us kids that it was Very Very Expensive. Every piece was exquisitely crafted and matched the specific pattern of the whole, and every piece had a story: a serving spoon was a wedding gift from Uncle Fred and Aunt Jenny, the dessert spoons were a wedding gift from Cousin Anne, and so on. If your wedding gift is a single serving spoon costing roughly $50 in 1950s dollars, it’s not just an expensive gift; it’s a symbol. A symbol that is not to be played with at my sister’s tea parties with her dolls, nor by me to bang along with music.
Mom didn’t care what the silver was worth by weight, but she did care about the craftsmanship and pattern and what that made it worth to her. As far as she was concerned, the set only became more expensive as time passed, rather like a fine vintage wine, and I have no doubt that if Mom was alive today, she’d want at least $10,000 for it, silver market be damned. I’m sure that’s what happening to the sellers setting the prices that the OP is looking at: they’re looking at the craftsmanship and the sentimentality and the age.
As it was, my sister inherited Mom’s set, and while my sister looks after it and uses it on appropriate occasions, Sis doesn’t regard it with the awe that Mom did. For example, when I visit, which may be once a year, it’s a special occasion–and it’s a little odd to be using Mom’s best and most precious and Very Very Expensive silverware to eat potato salad at a backyard BBQ. But it’s kind of fun, too.
I think silver flatware was more useful when there weren’t any good alternatives. Now, stainless steel flatware looks much the same and can be obtained for reasonable prices, the only people buying actual sterling silver flatware are doing so because they want to show off. Conspicuous consumption and all that. I looked up prices of this stuff a couple of years ago and each place setting was in the $500 range. Even a really good set of steel flatware costs only half that (and that’s for twelve place settings), so there’s no practical reason to go for silver.
Yes, sterling silver and silver plate does need to be polished when it gets tarnished. Using it every day keeps the tarnish away (i did not intend for that to rhyme). I have a few pieces of sterling from my mother. I wrap them in cling film. My sister has the sterling flatware and keeps in in the flannel lined anti-tarnish made specially for silverware chest.
I was concerned about that, especially since low-level volcanic fumes are in the air here (I live not too far from Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park). I assumed the silver would tarnish quickly. I also assumed that polishing it was a huge deal.
Both assumptions proved wrong. The silver was terribly tarnished when I inherited it, but I decided to use it for my 2019 Thanksgiving party. A friend and I went to work on polishing it and I was amused at how easy it was after I’d thought we’d be scrubbing hard all day.
That was precisely a year ago and I haven’t needed to polish it again - it still looks gorgeous. The only thing I’ve done to maintain it is to buy one of those special silver cloth pouches, which I just lay over the top of my silverware drawer.
Most nice things are for showing off. Where’d you get the idea that it’s not allowed?
My Stepmom too. I think some of it was from her mom, and some of it was wedding gifts, and some acquired over the years. She asked me a while ago if I wanted it, and I said not really, remembering the times as a child I was conscripted into polishing duty, and I believe she sold it.
I am strongly of the opinion that it’s fine to have nice things, but you should use them. I don’t want special dishes that only come out twice a year. I will admit that it never occurred to me to use them daily, since, again, as a child, there was laborious polishing and hand-washing every time, so I think I was under the impression that they were delicate.
Did I say that? Given that perfectly nice looking and functional stainless steel flatware can be gotten for a hundred or two hundred dollars, there’s no practical reason to spend $10,000 on sterling silver flatware. And yet, I understand that some people are happy to do so. If so, more power to you. I spend disposable income on stuff that some would consider foolish as well.
I don’t know that he will. But even so, we can soldier on through his disdain with our precious-metal eating implements and our spinning rims and our new iPhones (it curved corners again!)
Wait a second. If the silver looks different (presumably nicer) than the stainless steel, then wasn’t I correct in saying the only reason to own and use sterling silver flatware is to show off?