Beautiful china & silver - service for 12, WOW! Regardless of the ornateness, manufacturers of every generation of sterling prior to the 1950's had heavy weight patterns, light weight patterns, everything in between, & some gave a choice of weights within the same pattern; the quality of the finishing was not affected. It mostly depended on how much the consumer was willing to spend & what the jeweler had in stock. All the new silver that I've seen recently seems heavier than it should be - maybe trying to compensate for mediocre finishing to justify the price. I'm not a fan of silver-in-the-d/w but I know people who swear by it with no ill effects but I definitely would NOT put old hollow handle knives in there. You don't want water getting in the handle causing rust on steel parts or melting filler that holds the blade in place. LindaC, do the newer knives & replacements with ss blades have heat/detergent proof filling?

I also decorate with mine, keeping it all together in the kitchen~a large rectangular tray is over my cooktop, on the right side is another tray(round)leaning against the backsplash. A SS water pitcher holds old SS utincils. In front of that is a small lamp made out of an old SS sugar bowl. I also made a paper towel holder out of a candleabra which sits next to the pitcher. On the other side of the cooktop is a long narrow SS tray holding a crystal sugar bowl and creamer, crystal salt/pepper shakers, and toothpick holder. For years I kept my 'stuff' in a box, but 4 years ago when I mover into the new house, decided I didn't want to be a collector of stuff, but a 'user' of things I love. ;o)

Oh, I LOVE Rosenthal Magic Flute. Here's an article in putting sterling in the dishwasher. Bottom line is that it is ok, if you're careful about a few things. I have also always been told not to put sterling knives in the dishwasher, not just because of the resin, but because the handles are silver, but the blades are stainless and so they heat up at different rates and things can go bad. (How's that for specific and scientific?) I assume that wouldn't apply if you don't have heated dry, but I'd check with someone who knows. Even without heated dry, it gets pretty hot in there. Here is a link that might be useful: Putting sterling silver in the dishwasher.

If memory serves, there's no real "standard" for how much bone actually has to be included as a percentage to be labelled as such. Odds are they lowered the percentage but are still able to call it bone because it contains some, just not as much as it did.