Your Silver Collection

Many times, our collections, especially those that have a strong hold on our passions, leaves us overwhelmed and unprepared for a financial loss.

If you're new to collecting silver, or if you're a long-time collector, take some time to document your collection.

Here's some tips to get your started from Abe Silverman's Antique Silver Shop:

1. Take a bright, crisp and clear photo of each silver item and attach this photo to an individual sheet - notebook paper is fine.
   
2. Record on the sheet of paper what type the silver item is.
3. Record any marks as to maker, pattern number, monograms, etc.
4. Record the measurements.
   
5. Record a provenance - the ownership history, if known.
6. Record the date of purchase and price paid - if you have the original receipt, attach this receipt to the sheet.
7. File these papers in a loose-leaf binder and keep in a safe place.

For extra security, you can scan or copy each sheet into your computer and onto a floppy disk or CD. Store this 'extra' copy in a safe deposit box, or for safekeeping elsewhere - like a family member's home or your locked office desk.

If anything every untowards happens to your silver collection (natural disaster, theft, etc.) you'll have a record of your collection for insurance purposes.

Abe

Silver: The basic styles

Sometimes, one can determine so much just from the style of silver, sterling silver, silverplate and antique quadruple silver plate items.

The basic styles of silver are as follows:

- Empire style

- Gothic Revival style

- Rocco style

- Neoclassical style

- Japanese style

- Art Nouveau style

- Colonial Revival style

- Arts & Crafts Movement

and the Modern Art style

One of my up-coming newsletters about silver will feature a brief synopsis of each style.

Abe

Polishing Silver

"How can I polish or clean my silver?" (or sterling, or silver plate or quadruple silver or antique silver)

We get endless emails about this daily.
So many people want to be able to properly care for their silver - hopefully because the realize the value of keeping these antiques and because the appreciate the craftsmanship and beauty and wish to use them on a daily or regular basis.

We have a page at our website devoted strickly with how to properly clean and polish (and care for!) your silver! You can access the page not only from our home page http://www.abesilverman.com/ but also directly http://www.abesilverman.com/SilverCare.html
Do not be afraid of your silver!
Enjoy it!

Abe

Silver Magazine Mentions Abe Silverman's Antique Silver Shop

Abe Silverman's Antique Silver Shop was quite surprised and honored to be mention in the March/April 2005 issued of Silver Magazine! (page 40 of the Cyber-Silver article)

In case you're not familiar with Silver Magazine http://www.silvermag.com, they've been publishing since 1968. They are the only publication specializing in the entire field of silver, targeting both the serious silver collector, silver dealers and the casual silver collector.

From their site: "Silver Magazine brings you all the best silver offerings and the finest in research pertaining to the world of silver. We feature articles on antique English, Continental and Colonial American silver as well as 20th century works; previews and reviews of auctions; information on exhibitions and shows, both national and international. Widely considered a reference material by collectors and researchers, Silver counts among its subscribers the major museums, galleries and libraries of North America and Europe."

Abe

Silverplate, Silver Plate, Holloware, Hollowware

So which is it?
Silverplate as one word? Silver Plate as two words?
Holloware with one "w"? Hollowware with two?
Well, both are correct!
Many use the combined useage.
Others separate the two words.

Silver reference books, authors of silver and collectors of silver all have their preferences.

You will find a combination of both silver related words at our site.
Abe Silverman's person preference is "silverplate" as one word, and "holloware" with one "w".

We've noticed in our research that hollowware - with two w's - is most often used England, Scotland and Ireland.

By the way!
Today is April 15th - last day to have those taxes postmarked!
Wishing you all a sizeable return this year!

Abe

Welcome to Abe Silverman's Antique Silver Shop BLOG!

Welcome! We at Abe's invite you to participate in our Quadruple Silverplate blog. We'll answer questions, although NOT regarding values, add hints and tips, discuss various design periods, manufacturers of silver and discuss using, collecting and caring for your antique silver, sterling silver and silver plate holloware items.

Abe

Silver Manufacturer pages - major change in access

Some of you may be wondering why a *password* is now required to access the Silver Manufacturers pages.

We noticed a sharp increase in our bandwith usage - all attributed to those pages. A bit of detective work indicated that people were using that information to attempt to sell items at other venues. Not that it is, in and of itself, a big deal, (knowledge IS important), but these people were telling many others to glean information from the site to use, too. Again, not a big deal - until we had a look at our bandwidth logs!

Holy cow! Something had to be done, and done immediately. Options were tossed out, discussed at length, and we finally found a solution we were relatively comfortable with. Removing the pages altogether was not what we wanted to do. Charging for those pages was NEVER in our business plan, and NOT something we'd ever consider doing for profit. But SOMEONE was going to have to pay the additional charges for usage - and there wasn't a long line of volunteers. In fact, no one was in line. None of these "visitors" had any intention of ever becoming customers. Further, we do not accept paid advertising at our site - because that isn't our purpose.

Our purpose is to sell and to educate buyers, not be a 'classified advertisement' for spammers, gamers and the like.So, in a nutshell, we've been forced to compromise between leaving the reference pages up and running, removing the pages altogether, to finally charging a small fee to access these pages to help to defray the additional needs placed upon our site.

Although we are loathe to charge for access, abuses by others necessitated action. Customers, of course, will receive the password to access these pages free of charge until the 'quarter' ends. (January - March, April - June, July - September and October - December.) Quarterly access, and password changes at the end of each quarter, eliminates the probability of hemorrhaging bandwidth again in the future as the password makes the rounds - of which we're certain some will do.

Thank you.

Abe