Antique Silverplate Tea Sets and Coffee Pots

During the 17th century, expanded trade with China and the Middle East helped supply Europe with three exotic new beverages—tea, coffee, and chocolate. To serve the growing demand for these drinks, silversmiths began crafting pots, kettles, urns, milk jugs, spoons, sugar bowls, and caddies. By the 1650s, tea was widely available but very expensive, so was mostly limited to the Europe’s upper crust. The earliest European teapots were used to pour hot water into a cup holding dried tea leaves, and these pots resembled small coffee pots with octagonal, pear, or bullet-shaped vessels and a curved, faceted spout. In the late 17th century, since coffee was cheaper to import, it quickly became more widely adopted as a breakfast drink than tea. London’s first coffee house opened in 1652, and soon there were cafes all across the continent, with more than 400 operating in London alone by the early 18th century. The earliest European coffeepots were designed like wine jugs, with a lip for pouring rather than a spout. Chocolate had also reached Europe around this time, via the West Indies, and was becoming a popular offering in cafes. Most silver chocolate pots and coffeepots made in the early 18th century were similarly shaped, with a tall form that narrowed towards the lid and a curved spout opposite a lengthy handle made from wood or ivory. In contrast to coffeepots, pitchers for chocolate featured hinged finials on their lids, allowing the insertion of a molinet, or swizzle stick, to stir the thicker beverage. However, hot chocolate lost favor in the 1750s, and silversmiths focused their efforts on vessels for tea and coffee. Meanwhile, in an effort to make more affordable silver products, metalworkers had begun exploring processes using a fraction of the amount of sterling. The first form of silverplating, known as Sheffield plate or sometimes “old Sheffield plate,” describes an English plating technique developed in the 1740s by cutler Thomas Boulsover. Boulsover was repairing an expensive knife handle made from copper and silver, which he accidentally overheated, causing the two metals to fuse. He soon developed a process to fuse a thin piece of sterling silver onto a copper ingot, creating a strong, bi-metal sandwich that could be flattened, formed, and chased or die-stamped like sterling silver. However, Boulsover only utilized his creation for smaller items like snuff boxes and buttons. It was another Sheffield manufacturer, Joseph Hancock, who made Sheffield plate famous after he started selling more complex pieces in the late 1750s. Other major firms like J. Wright & G. Fairbairn or Messrs Creswick also crafted exquisite pieces of Sheffield plate. Most objects made from Sheffield plate were flat-chased but not engraved, since that would reveal the copper underneath. However, engraving was eventually made possible by using a hand-operated fly press, which was designed to drag a layer of silver plating over any exposed copper. In the late 18th century, metalworkers also developed an alternate method for engraving crests on silverplated items simply by cutting a hole into the dish and soldering a small piece of solid silver in its place, on which a crest could easily be stamped or engraved. By this time, the basic tea service was made up of a teapot, milk jug, and sugar bowl, though many also included a matching hot water jug, slop bowl, coffee pot, and tray. Some antique silverplated sets from the era featured tea kettles that fit onto stands mounted with a burner, which were gradually replaced by large urns with an internal billet, or heated rod, and a spigot for dispensing hot water. Other popular silverplate accessories included tea caddies and mote spoons, which had decorative piercing on the bowl to strain tea leaves from a cup and a pointed handle to remove leaves from a clogged spout. About 100 years later, also in England, electroplating was introduced by the Birmingham manufacturer Elkington & Co. Sometimes marked EPNS, for Electro Plated Nickel Silver, these products were made from an alloy of nickel, zinc, and copper—known as “nickel silver”—which was plated with a thin layer of silver using electricity, a potassium cyanide solution, and two electrodes. Because this process deposited pure silver rather than sterling silver (which is 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% copper), electroplated objects typically have a brighter, whiter tone than those made from Sheffield plate. The earlier Sheffield plate process was gradually discontinued, as electroplating required less silver and less labor. However, many electroplated pieces made in the 19th century are confusingly stamped "Sheffield Plate," a reference to their manufacturing location, not the metal contents. Electroplating was also used to make Brittania metal, a poorer quality alloy of tin, antimony, and copper (typically marked EPBN) as well as electroplated stainless steel (marked EPSS). Silverplate’s comparable affordability allowed plated tea sets and accessories to be marketed to the growing middle class in the late 18th century. Goldsmiths recognized the threat posed by a successful silverplating industry, and lobbied to pass a British law that banned the use of hallmarks on plated wares in 1773. Silverplated goods were popular regardless, and in 1784, the law was repealed so that manufacturers could mark their plated items as long as they didn’t imitate established sterling markings and only struck the mark a single time, resulting in a sloppier looking imprint. Antique silverplate teapots from the late 18th century were often made in a drum or oval-cylinder shape with stylistic details matching various trends, from those with ornate Rococo chasing to others in a more restrained Classicist or Federalist form. In the United States, Reed & Barton grew to become one of the most successful silver producers during the late 19th century, producing electroplated silver, Brittania ware, and sterling silver pieces. Collectors should be careful of antique silverplate objects with significant wear, as the underlying copper or nickel sometimes becomes visible or “bleeds” through the silver. Additionally, some pieces of Sheffield plate might have been repaired or patched via the electroplating process, though these areas are usually easy for an expert to spot.