Rare Sambonet serving set by Guglielmo Urlich for Arca

Beautiful glass oil and vinegar service designed in style of Gio Ponti in the 1950s, Italian made. The set is made entirely of glass and the supporting...

This charming Italian Art Deco centerpiece, made of brass and dating from the 1920s, is a decorative object of great value and elegance. The rectangular shape with rounded corners is...

This extraordinary Art Deco-style game box represents a veritable treasure trove of 1920s Italian design and entertainment. Made of fine walnut burl, it is distinguished by the refin...

Silver-plated metal cutlery set designed by Gio Ponti for Manifattura Krupp Milan. The set has a total of 48 pieces and is composed as follows: Twelve three-pronged forks, twelve tal...

Outstanding monumental French 950 silver dinner size high quality Louis XV style Flatware set - 175 pieces. This set includes: 12 Dinner Size Knives, pointed, 9 7/8" 12 Large Dinner Size Forks, 8 1/4" 12 Luncheon Knives, pointed, 8 1/4" 12 Luncheon Forks, 7" 12 Teaspoons, 5" 11 Place Soup Spoons, 7 1/8" 12 Demitasse Spoons, 4 3/8" 12 Fish Forks, 3-tine, 7 1/8" 11 Fish Knives, flat handle all-sterling, 8 1/4" 11 Dinner Spoons, 8 1/4" 11 Pastry Forks, 3-tine, 5 5/8" 11 Ice Cream Spoons, gold-washed, 5 1/4" 12 Oyster Forks, 5 1/8" 1 Large Vegetable Spoon, 10" 1 Berry Spoon, 8 1/4" 1 Fish Serving Fork, 3-tine, 9 1/2" 1 Fish Servers, flat handle all-sterling, 10 3/4" 1 Oyster Ladle, 9 1/2" 1 Gravy Ladle, 6 7/8" 1 Large Cold Meat Fork, 10" 1 Flat Handle Master Butter, 6 5/8" 1 Hollow Handle Master Butter, all-sterling, 8" 1 Salad Set, gold-washed, all-sterling, 9 1/2" 1 Pie Server, flat handle all-sterling, 10 1/2" 1 Soup Ladle, 12" 1 Roast Carving Set, 2-pc, 12 1/2" 1 Lamb Shank holder w/stainless implement, 8 1/2" 1 Sugar Tong, 5 1/4" 1 Cheese Knife w/stainless blade, 8" 1 Sugar Sifter Ladle, gold-washed, 6 1/2" 1 Tea Caddy Spoon, 5 5/8" 1 Sardine Fork, 5 3/4" 1 Petit Four Server...

An exceptional, fine and impressive, comprehensive antique English sterling silver Sandringham pattern flatware service for twelve persons - boxed; an addition to our flatware collec...

This elegant French flatware set is designed for twelve people and comes complete with its original two-piece presentation case. The interior of the case is upholstered in refined bl...

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...