It's different looking for each pattern....but Replacements will give you an idea...especially if you know the name of the pattern.
Incidentally...those parfait spoons are iced tea spoons and an olive "fork" is usually a spoon....but you might have a cocktail fork or a pickle fork or even a berry fork....depending on the pattern.
Linda C

The amazing variety of serving instruments and flatware never cease to amaze me. I found an old book, written in the mid-forties at my mother's house. She had evidently read it, and then used it in the basement as a foot for a storage bin. LOL. There were page after page of silverware diagrams, and when I finally sit down and read it, I doubt I'll ever be at a loss for identifying utensils again.

There is even a section in the book telling you how to set a proper table when your maid isn't around. Uhm, that would be every day for me. I remember decades ago when laying covers was taught in school.

What's also amazing to me is the number of "repurposed" silver items there are for sale on eBay...
Seems to me someone says..."oops! That fork got into the disposer....what can I do with it?" And we see things advertised as baked potato forks...with the middle 2 tines cut out...and a spoon made into a butter pick...with the mangled end cut off and the rest fashioned into a twisted pick. I even bought a "cheese scoop" which was a spoon that was squared off and rounded at the edges....stupid me!..
I guess it's the variety of old serving pieces that do exist that fuels this practise. I mean after all when a pattern legitimatly had a sardine fork made, why wouldn't some try to cut off a meat fork and call it a sardine fork?
And all the stainless business ends that you find attached to hollow sterling handles. Appears that they took a place knife with a bad blade and put it on a stainless "pasta server"...sterling didn't come with a pasta server in the 1890's!
Linda C

I wonder if this illustrates what you're talking about, Linda. What's that green stuff in the middle??

Calliope, so far I've learned that I have a berry spoon. :-)

You got it!!...That's what I am saying... do you really think Kirk-Steiff made a "baked potato fork???" I mean, isn't that the epitome of gracious dining to use your sterling silver fork to stab a baked potato from the bowl being passed and plop it onto your plate?
I suspect the green stuff is to hide the fact that this is a "re-purposed" piece....and the evidence that there were 2 more tines.
However....the price ain't bad....compared to some of the other "potato forks" offered.
Alisande....post pictures here if you can....I'll bet we could gather a crowd of people who could offer opinions as to what you have.
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: potato fork

Good idea, Linda. I'll have time to take pictures on Wednesday or Thursday and will post them here.

LOL at those gracious diners plopping the potatoes. :-)

Alisande,
It will be helpful to have the sizes of the individual pieces. In many patterns, some of the forks, etc. may have the same shape but be different in length only - & you can't tell the difference in a photo. The accepted way to measure the length of a piece of silver is to lay it face down on a ruler.

The era that the pattern entered the market is another determining factor in the use. From about 1870 to WW1, most patterns had pieces for every imagineable food. However during the 1920's, the government 'asked' the mfgrs. to cut back to basics because jewelers were going bankrupt trying to maintain the inventory. Then the Great Depression, WW11, taste in fashion changes, etc, & voila - we have the standard number of pieces that we have today. If I see a picture of the pattern & the manufacturer's mark, I can probably ID it. Not that I remember them, but I have several very good books.

FWIW - a Victorian era jelly spoon is usually just slightly bigger & more elaborate than a sugar spoon & sometimes eliptical. It's usually about 6-1/2 to 3/4" & is smaller than a preserve spoon which is 7-7 1/2".

A tomato server is a flat server, usually pierced, sometimes having teeth on the side edge or the top; the usual size is about 7 1/2". Sometimes they were smaller & referred to as Cucumber servers. Larger & it will probably be something else.

I look forward to seeing your collection.
Hester

Linda, is your "cheese scoop", perhaps, a Stilton scoop? If so, that's a legitimate flatware piece. It's the long, skinny piece on the left.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Stilton scoop

I collect cheese scoops, so I know what they look like. I wanted it to be a scoop in my daughter's pattern Towle Old Colonial which has been made for more than 100 years and still is in production...
My mistake was wanting it, loving the price but not looking closely enough to notice that I bought a dessert spoon with the end filed off and the sides bent up.
My cheese scoop was simply a repourposed spoon.
Linda C

Alisande, Replacements is great site! Unmonogrammed pieces are worth more than are those with monograms. I've been looking for one replacement fork (no monograms) in my grandmother's pattern (Tiffany, Winthrop) and 5(count 'em!) in my great Aunt's (Tiffany, Flemish) it's been a few months and still no luck. I was successful in my quest for a missing fork in my paternal grandmother's service (Towle, Mary Chilton) however!

Linda, I LOVE Old Colonial (it's my own pattern).

I am regularly amazed by the variety of pieces available in the older patterns, too. It's such fun to scroll through them and click on the items to see what they actually look like.

Here's a great book for anyone interested in this sort of thing: "The Art of the Table" by Suzanne von Dranchenfels c. 2000, Simon & Schuster. It's informative, entertaining... and really imparts the author's love the subject to the reader! I am now a real stickler for attention to detail when setting a table... I am now on the hunt for discreet, attractive knife rests! lol.

Chelone...do you know Duval silver? I have done business with them and they are reliable....and Silver Queen...lots of new stuff but they also deal in the old as well.
Funny story about how my daughter came to choose Old Colonial. I had started Gorham Wreath for her...her grand mother had been given some spoons as a bride and I had bought some forks at an auction and a couple of serving spoons, but was having trouble with knives.
Went to an auction and they were selling an assortment of place forks, and I bid $1.00 each...take them all....and for $8 I bought 8 assorted sterling forks (this was in 1982). Well Becky saw the Old Colonial and said she wished she didn't have that wreath because she liked this so much better....and I looked in the Antiques trader and found there was a lot of it available on the secondary market and it was still being made...I told her go for it! So that's what she has.
And with the advent of eBay...I have fleshed out the wreath to be a huge set for my grand daughter...I mean there are 15 basic 4 piece place settings, plus 11 sea food forks, 9 or 10 butter spreaders, serving spoons, forks, ladles etc etc...
It's such fun!!
Linda C

Replacements makes those weird pieces. This seems so wrong.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hand-Crafted Pieces

Thank you for the "hot" tips, Linda! I'm going to give them a whirl.

I am the youngest in my immediate family. And the only "girl". Consequently, I am awash in silver, lol. I love it, but in reality, what am I ever going to do with 4 services of silverware? So, my "goal" has been to replace missing items in the services and keep my "eyes open" and my "ears pricked" to what young people I know and love that may be interested in something that has become so "old fashioned" and "quaint".

I should buy stock in the manufacturers of "rouge cloth" and silver polish...

:)

Ideefixe...I didn't know Replacements was doing that...EWWWW!
I now am awash in silver...but by my own doing!! LOL!
My mother's silver went to my daughter....after she had chosen the Old Colonial...so she has 2 sets. I have my "Wedding Silver" and an antique set I have been collecting, Whiting Louis XV and I have custody of the set I have been buying for my grand daughter...
But my daughter has 4 kids but only 1 girl, so I guess there will be silver for the great grand kids.
I am blown away by the young things that don't want silver when they get married, but then spend nearly as much on stainless...but I know I am preaching to the choir here!!
Linda C

I am still thinking about the baked potato forks... For $65 or more, I will keep putting the baked potatoes on a platter and letting the kids just roll them onto their plates :)

I guess I won't win any points in charm school that way though LOL

I have really enjoyed reading about all your patterns and different silver pieces and then going on the internet to look at them! Thanks!

I agree with Ideefixe: Replacements & most of the larger matching services sell 'custom made pieces' along with new production that is finished in Mexico & is poor in comparison to its older counterparts. That's one reason I stick to the antique stuff - the quality is superior in every way. And monograms - I've been known to buy pieces BECAUSE of the mono - who cares if the initials aren't yours! (If you remove a mono, most of the time it will seriously devalue the piece unless it's truly rare.) And if you buy a piece from Replacements that really is antique, you'll pay at least 3 times what you can find it for on Ebay if you have a little patience.

Before Ebay, I had only a modest collection of Art Nouveau pieces - it all started with a dealer's display of olive spoons in the late 1980's & then I was hooked. And Ebay fueled the fire. Now I have 4 large chests full Victorian weirdness that DH swears my niece will sell one day at a yard sale! But while I'm still kicking, it sets one of the best looking tables in town.
Hester

Oh...we are sick aren't we!!!
I love having silver that belonged to great Aunt Zelda....monogramed with a "Z"....funny thing, I never had an aunt Zelda...but who cares!
I am so glad to find there are others out there who love having sugar nips and several Stilton scoops, and includes an antique jelly spoon with a gift of home made jelly...
And then there's the addiction to old brass push ups....but that's another thread! LOL!
Linda C

LindaC,
I probably shouldn't ask, but what is a brass push up?

And a question about cheese scoops. I've had a few in several different sizes but apparently have never figured out the correct way to use them. I can see using the large spade-shaped ones for stilton, but what about the shorter, more curved ones? They don't cut that well & many aren't sturdy enough to attack a wheel of cheese so they must be made for a soft variety, but even then the cheese sticks inside the blade. How does one get the cheese off the scoop & onto their plate? Most specialty pieces are extremely well suited for their purpose, but I'll be darned if I can figure out the cheese scoop!
Hester

My late husband was with a "very famous Blue Cheese maker" in Iowa...so we would regularly have a wheele of blue cheese, which is softer than stilton.
You just scoop some of the cheese out of the center of a wheel that has been brought to room temperature and put it on your plate.
Sounds impossible, but it works.
Those triangular things are for hard cheeses.
Yeah...it's a disease.....

Here is a link that might be useful: brass pushups...

The next time I have a big chunk of cheese, I'll give the scoop another try; if I can use it, then ownership has been justified! (I've had one for at least 10 years so justification must not be a real priority). I know they were popular because Durgin made no less than 3 different ones in their Iris pattern & Frontenac has 5 that I know of. One of my reference books has a catalogue of Towle's Old Colonial which shows a large (8 1/2"), hollow handle one, but none of the smaller ones.

Ah, the brass candle sticks... Are they called 'pushups' because of the ability to raise/lower the candle as it burns? I hadn't heard that term before, but then I obviously know nothing about them except they are lovely & out of my price range - 2 very endearing qualities - judging by the website. I believe they are one of my sister's addictions, but then she doesn't have a silver monkey on her back to support. LOL

The small cheese scoop in the Old Colonial was a place spoon "repurposed"...ground down and cut and bent...
Yes dummy me!!
The brass candlesticks don't have to be expensive...you just have to shop carefully, and exhaustivly!!

As you know Linda...y'all are speaking my language, and I am so glad I opened this thread!!!! Thank you Alisande for posting! I loved the "silver monkey" refernce and yep, I just looked and he is on my back as well :^)
DH just laughs when I haul home a new "treasure"! I am now on a tear to find pieces of a Rogers Silver Plate pattern called "Debutante". I found a bunch of pieces in an estate sale, and DDIL fell in love! Now I am looking for enough pieces to make up a set for her. If anyone has any for sale, I would love to hear from you! Okay, back to polishing and polishing and pol.................

Here is a link that might be useful: Debutante

I've enjoyed all these posts! I think of you ladies as the Silver Queens. And yes, Silver Queen is also my favorite ear of corn. :-)

I'll start posting some of my Stieff Rose pieces for ID. At least I'm pretty sure this is the Stieff Rose pattern. If it's not, please tell me!

I measured everything the way Hester suggested. This fork is 7-3/4" long.
{{gwi:1373163}}

This one is 4-5/8" long. It's the one I thought was an olive fork.
{{gwi:1373164}}

This piece is 8" long.
{{gwi:1373165}}

This is 8" long as well.
{{gwi:1373166}}

Oh my!! Pretty!!
I think the first is a meat fork...also called a cold meat fork and the second is a lemon fork and the last 2 are a salad set.....but the spoon is less ornate than the fork....but it sure would work as one.
That is one pattern you should be sure NOT to clean by dipping or any electrolysis methid!...
Linda C

A lemon fork! (Hitting self in head.) Why didn't I know that?? I would have said lime fork! :-)

No, I'm not cleaning anything I might sell. I spoke to the Replacements.com guy and he cautioned me against doing that. I was relieved.

Thanks, Linda!

It all depends if you are thinking about Margaritas...or a nice cup of tea!!

Regardless of what that replacements guy says...I would get some wrights silver polish and get those black marks off of the bowl ends of the pieces....don't touch the handles.
If you will be doing eBay...some people may not be able to tell if those black marks are pits and there forever or just bits of tarnish. And if they are pitted and won't really completely clean up, why then you...and any buyer will know.
Check out completed sales on ebay and see...I think you will find that pieces left with lots of black marks sell for less generally than those well polished....and that those that have been dipped or cleaned with one of those plates and baking soda also sell for less.
Linda C

Good advice about the cleaning. Sometimes a good washing with warm water & dish detergent & then a gentle polishing works wonders without stripping. And it's always good to let ebay buyers know the exact condition if there are any problems.

The lemon fork could possibly be a butter fork. They are very similar in size & without an old pattern book, it's almost impossible to tell how the manufacturer labeled it. In one decade they would be one thing, & the next year the same piece would be called something else! At any rate, you don't see a great deal of either & it's a nice little piece.

The cold meat fork is a SMALL cold meat fork or a (chipped??) beef fork as opposed to the usual CMF which is at least 9" long. For those who are curious, a HOT meat fork is the carving fork.

Hester

I did notice that polished pieces do better on eBay. But I'm not at all sure I'm going the eBay route. I'm experienced with eBay selling, but this time I'm exploring selling to a dealer.

Replacements.com pays pretty good prices, although I haven't done all my research yet I have the strong feeling that if I sell to them rather than try to eBay the pieces I'll end up slightly ahead financiallyÂwith none of the auction hassles.

If you think I'm wrong, though, I'd be interested to hear your viewpoint.

Okay, here are some more Stiff Rose pieces for your discerning eyes. Thank you, as always!

7" ladle

{{gwi:1373167}}

7-5/8" something:

{{gwi:1373168}}

5-3/8" something else:

{{gwi:1373169}}

8" wavy spoon:

{{gwi:1373170}}

A smaller ladle. This was hard to measure because it's so curvy. Call it 5.5 to 5.75"

{{gwi:1373172}}

8-3/8" something-or-other:

{{gwi:1373173}}

I found two more of the rather oval 8" spoons posted earlier. Should I assume they're just general serving spoons? I found one more small cold meat fork, too.

I'm sure all these pieces were attached to a complete service for 12 at one time. Makes me wonder where it ended up. I have my suspicions...... the relative-who-snatches-everything-for-herself probably has it. ;-)

The first ladle is a gravy ladle, the next piece is a tomato server...for serving sliced tomatoes.
The "wavy something"??...maybe a mints spoon?
The next is a berry spoon, the smaller ladle is a sauce ladle...works well for chocolate sauce and caramel sauce..
And the last "something" has been called a bacon fork...but I don't believe it. I think it's a sardine server....and frankly it looks suspiciously like it has been "re purposed".
Let's see what Hester has to say.
Linda C

Thanks for all those IDs!

I'd be amazed if the last piece is repurposed. All these came from a couple who led an affluent lifestyle with a "nothing but the best" attitude. No Yankee thrift in play . . . if something broke, they would throw it out.

The small ladle was actually called a 'cream ladle' (cream for all of those berries served with the berry spoons LOL) but Linda is correct about what they're used for today.

The 8" spoons are regular serving Table spoons.

Linda is also right about it being a bacon fork and as well as a sardine fork. I'm looking at Osterberg's "Sterling Silver Flatware" & there is a picture of one identical to yours in a different Steiff pattern. It says that bacon forks were made usually by Kirk or Steiff (must have been a Baltimore thing) & old Kirk catalogs c. 1911 called them bacon forks but a 1930's catalog called them long handled sardine forks. To my mind, tongs would work much better for either food, but whatever sells...
Hester

Thanks! Hester, do you have any thoughts on the third photo, the 5-3/8" "something else"?

The small ladle to my Towle Old master is called a sauce ladle in a mid 1950's brochure.
I pour cream...well maybe I don't ever have any thick enough to ladle! LOL!
What sort of a vessel do you use the cream ladle with? Do you serve cream in a sauce boat? Or do you use the ladle with a pitcher...or a bowl?
I too am curious about the "something else".
Linda C

The "something else" piece is a confection spoon, being slightly larger than a bon bon spoon, which is a little bit bigger than a nut spoon. I'm clueless as to what constitutes a 'confection' but I'd be interested in hearing what everyone else thinks.

Different mfgrs named things differently & when it suited their purpose, they renamed the same piece. It was all about marketing & how to get the lady of the house to buy more silver. I know a decent amount about Victorian & turn of the century silver, but almost nothing about styles & names after 1910. I don't doubt that these small ladles are now called sauce ladles - I suspect they were used for that purpose in 1900, too but maybe 'cream' sounded more decedant.

I'm guessing here, but I think cream ladles were meant to be used with cream that was barely whipped. Regular whip cream is too stiff to work well with a ladle (been there, done that) & a ladle wouldn't be needed if you poured heavy cream from a jug. I have a small, double spouted sauce boat that I use, but I don't know if there was a special piece for the purpose; the ladle is in scale to the boat so it fits my criteria. On second thought, the original cream ladles (known as the 'old style') had much smaller bowls & thinner handles & were in use before 1900 so maybe they were used for dipping about a tablespoon of heavy cream from a jug instead of pouring.

FWIW, Besides serving cream with those large portions of berries, the Victorians also offered a bowl of sugar (powdered, I think) to be served with a sugar sifter (basically, a pierced version of a cream ladle or a pierced confection spoon). Then those delightful berries were eaten with small berry forks. I wish I had some now!
Hester

I believe a "confection" might have been a small cookie or a cake...like perhaps a Madeline..maybe! LOL!
I have what the seller called a strawberry fork in Gorham Wreath...a 1910 pattern. It looks very like the lemon fork...with an extra tine. I have seen pictures of a pitcher/jug with a ladle in it...perhaps one of the old style cream ladles.
And then there was that little tin ladle meant to take some of the cream from the top of the milk bottle. My grandmother called that "top milk".
Linda C

Alisande,
Does the 8" wavy Berry Spoon seem to 'fit' with the 8" Salad Serving Fork? It might be the other half of the set rather than a berry spoon.

Linda,
You may be right about confections being madelines, etc. To me, it usually means 'fancy candy' , but why not use a bon bon server, unless it was a really large piece. Panforte or perhaps a meringue? But it seems like these or the cookies/madelines would be hard to capture on this server - they tend to be more spoon shaped than flat. I have a beautiful, naturalistic grape vine confection spoon & I can't imagine using it to serve any of these foods. Appropriate or not, I use it to serve fresh fruit that needs to be served without juice. Another one of life's mysteries...

I've never seen a jug with a ladle in it, but that makes perfect sense for the old style cream ladles. Now I need a milk jug in my china pattern. You, Linda, are a bad influence! LOL!
Hester

Oh, no! I ended up with so many silver photos that I moved them to their own Photobucket album, forgetting that the links to the posts would be severed.

I got some quotes from Replacements, and it looks like I'll be doing the eBay thing after alll. Three dollars for my lovely lemon fork??? I think not! Actually, I'm thinking I might keep it, along with some other pieces. Your enthusiasm, Silver Queens, is contagious.

Silver doesn't take up a lot of room...unlike pressed glass footed compotes or old brass candlesticks ;-Q
Unless the money they might bring means you will buy something else you are panting after....keep them!
That's my motto!!! Keep it all!! LOL!
Replacement's motto is buy low sell high...which is great for them!
Linda C

Yeah!!!!!!!!!! Glad to hear you're not going with Replacements. They act like they're doing YOU a favor to buy or sell - & either way, you get screwed.

And, yes, it is very contagious!!!
Hester