The Ultimate Guide To Selling Antique Silver Tea Services
Are you looking to find out what your silver tea service is worth, and how best to sell it? At Mark Littler Ltd we can help you understand what affects the value of your silver tea service, provide you with a valuation, and advise on how best to sell it.
Silver tea services have been made since the late 18th century, as before this each piece would have their own designs and trends. Silver tea services were originally designed for the upper classes of society and whilst they are not often used for their original purpose, silver tea services are collected for their historical and decorative appeal.
The value of a silver tea service is affected by various factors including the maker, age, condition and rarity. The maker can have a significant impact on the value, as pieces made by well-known silversmiths such as Paul Storr or Georg Jensen can command much higher prices than those made by lesser known makers. Age also plays a role, with older pieces being more desirable and therefore having a higher value.
Condition is another important factor to consider when determining the value of a silver tea service. Any damage or repairs can greatly decrease its worth, whereas a well-preserved piece in excellent condition will be more valuable. Rarity also affects the value, with unique or limited edition pieces being highly sought after by collectors.
What Is Your Silver Worth?
How To Sell: Auction or Private Sale?
Mark Littler Ltd. are one of the only independent advisers in the antique industry. We offer trusted, independent advice to help you sell your silver for the highest possible price.
Selling at an auction might provide your silver with greater exposure. However, with a combined average of 45% in gross buyers’ and sellers’ fees, this approach might prove to be a false economy.
Conversely, finding a private buyer for your silver through our services could net you 33% more than if you sold it via auction, as our fees are only 12%.
What We Do For You
Simply fill in your contact details below and you will get an automatic referral to a leading silver auction expert who will give you an auction estimate and advise on how to sell with them. We will also see if we are able to get any offer from our private clients.
If we get any offers we will send these within 7 days. All offers are without obligation and there are no fees to pay us if you decide to sell at auction.
Silver Valuation Tips
To get the most accurate valuation of your silver simply ensure you provide the following information:
- What condition is your silver in? Let us know if there are and dents or heavy scratches in the silver.
- How heavy is your item? Please provide a measurement in grams if you can as this helps us determine the gauge of the silver. For instance a silver teapot can weigh as much as 1,000g or as little as 250g. Outwardly the design may look identical but the gauge of the silver is much heavier. This is important as items made from a better gauge of silver were often made by better makers for the upper classes, and as such will have a big impact on the value.
- PROVENANCE! Who owned your item before you did? Is there an interesting presentation inscription on your item that might shine light into it’s former life?
Important Note: this is a valuation service and not a hallmark identification service. Please see this page to learn how to read your hallmarks.
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What Affects The Value Of Your Silver Tea Service?
Size of Service
Tea services can contain a number of different items such as teapots, coffee pots, milk jugs, sugar bowls, tea caddies etc and the number of extra pieces will have an impact on value.
Silver tea services were often bought piecemeal and so whilst they will often be of very similar design, they can sometimes have different maker’s marks. Of course, a full service of matching marks commands a premium.
Trays
A tea service is sometimes accompanied by a silver tray. Whilst trays were not designed to carry a full tea service when in use, they are often used to display the full service.
The tray accompanying the tea service would often carry an intricate chased design and sometimes featured armorials in the centre, similar to silver salvers.
Condition
Clearly the condition of your tea service will have an impact on the value.
Dents, bruises and splits are all obvious forms of damage that will impact the value.
Quite often on tea service pieces you may find that a coat of arms has been removed which can be hard to spot but will also have a big impact on the value.
Do not worry about cleaning your tea service. In some cases you can reduce the value of a tea service by cleaning it.
What Our Customers Say
Age
We have been applying hallmarks to silver since the 14th century and as such they are the oldest form of consumer protection in the world.
Western tea services have been made from around the 18th Century and the earlier pieces often command a higher price.
However, the older the tea service, the more likely that there will have been repairs over the years. As such it is a combination of both the age and the condition that will have a real impact on the value of your tea service.
Silver or Plate
To put it bluntly, sterling silver items were made for the middle and upper classes. Silver plate was an invention aimed at making ‘silver’ style items available to the masses.
If you see the letters EPNS or A1 on your tea service then it is silver plated. Your tea service will need to be hallmarked and carry very specific marks in order to be legally called silver.
As silver plate was made for the mass market many items of silver plate do not have any value.
Weight
The weight of your tea service will help us to understand the quality of your silver. But how?
Silversmiths like Paul Storr produced many items to the same design, but depending on the wealth of their client they would adjust the amount of silver that they would use for the commission.
As such a tea service may be 500g or it might be 1,300g. Without being able to handle your items in person, providing the weight will give us a very good idea of the gauge of the silver used and thus we will be able to give you a very good idea of the value.
