Antique German 14-Karat Solid Gold Renaissance Style Cutlery Service, circa 1830

Aaron Hatfield & Sons silver - gilt cutlery set. This elegant silver gilt cutlery set was crafted in 1851 by the renowned maker Aaron Hatfield & Sons in Sheffield. The set features...

An antique box of six gold plated silver small spoons that are exquisitely decorated from the bottom to the top back and front. France, circa 1880

This charming 19th century French 18-piece cased dessert silverware / flatware set, with its unique, slightly grotesque satyr mask motif and warm ve...

19th Century - Silver Serving Cutlery Set. Portuguese, 19th century, comprising a meat carving tool, a fish carving tool, and salad servers. With 'Javali II' hallmarks of 833 thousan...

Spanish Baroque gold by Reed & Barton sterling silver flatware set - 32 pieces. This set is vermeil (completely gold-washed) and includes: Eight...

This exquisite antique cutlery set is beautifully presented in a handcrafted wooden storage box. The set includes matching knives and forks, e...

19th Century - Cutlery Set - Zachariah Barraclough & Sons. English, 19th century, marketed by 'Zachariah Barraclough & Sons' dated 1893-1931. Composed of: 12 dessert forks and 12 des...

Set worked of gilded Cutlery for entremets. A soup spoon, a fork and a coffee spoon. Very nice set. Shells are visible on the handle of the fork and the...

A Fine Early 20th Century 152 Piece Austrian Dinnerware Flatware Set by Berndorfer Metallwaaren-Fabrik, stamped 'Berndorf Alpacca', The Neoclassical Revival style set of Alpacca flatware comprising of: 12 Fish knives 12 Salad forks 12 Salad knives 12 Pasta spoons 12 Dessert spoons 12 Coffee spoons 12 Tea spoons 12 Ice-cream spoons 1 Ice thong 1 Soup ladle 1 Serving spoon 1 Salad spoon 1 Sauce/Gravy ladle 1 Meat carving knife 1 Meat carving fork 1 Salad fork All inside its original lined wooden storage-traveling cabinet. (See all images). Circa: Vienna, 1900-1930. The Alpacca alloy was developed in 1823 by the German chemist Dr. Ernst August Geitner (1783-1852). It was very similar in its appearance to silver, therefore, this new alloy was first called "Argentan". It consisted of 20% nickel, 55% copper and 25% zinc. The new silver-imitating alloy soon became very popular. The Gebrueder Henninger (Henninger Bros.) proposed a similar alloy (5-30% nickel, 45-70% copper and 8-45% zinc with trace amounts of lead, tin and iron) which they called "Neusilber". Later both Argentan and Neusilber were used under the trade name of Alpacca (or Alpakka). The great advantage of the use of Alpacca alloy as the base metal for silver plating is that the appearance of the objects does not change significantly with the wearing away of the silver layer and, unlike sterling silver, it does not require frequent polishing or cleaning due to tarnishing. The earliest known Berndorf Alpacca mark (No.1) was introduced around 1880 and used until 1891. I found it on the bottom of a 30 cl teapot bearing the inscription KRIEAU, which corresponds to the "Wiener Krieau", the famous race course in Vienna. The mark No.1 represents an oval of 3.0 x 3.6 mm size bearing the lettering "BMF ALPACCA" (which means Berndorfer Metallwaaren Fabrik or Berndorf Metalware Factory) with the "M" and "F" letters being fused. Inside the oval there is a profile of a walking bear looking down. This mark is quite rare. BIBLIOGRAPHY - Ingrid Haslinger, Tafelkultur Marke Berndorf, Das Niederoesterreichische Erfolgsunternehmen Arthur Krupps (Ketterl Verlag, Wien, 1998), pp.1-174, (in German). - Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk and Claudia Kanowski, Modern Art of Metallwork (Berlin: Broehan Museum, 2001), 1-598. - Musterbuch ueber Tafelgeraete in Alpacca-Silber I, Alpacca-Silber II und Alpacca, Unversilbert (Berndorfer Haus, Berlin, 1928), pp.1-53, (in German). - Waltraud Neuwirth, Bluehender Jugendstil Oesterreich, Band 2: Firmen und Marken [Art Nouveau in Blossom - Austria, Vol. 2: Companies and Marks]. Vienna: Selbstverlag Dr. Waltraud Neuwirth, 1991, 1-288 (in German). - David N. Nikogosyan, 2008, Marks of Silverplated Hollowware...

Gorgeous Spanish provincial gold by Towle sterling silver flatware set, 48 pieces. Gold flatware is on trend and makes a bold statement on your table. This set is vermeil (complete...