Protecting Your Silver Collection

Silver plate is one of the most under appreciated and under priced antiques you can find right now.

The reason is pretty easy to understand. Our lifestyles are a lot less formal than they have ever been. Gone are the times when all a young bride needed to set up her home was her china pattern, matching glassware, fine linens and silverware.

We tell ourselves that we are too busy to clean silver (or can't be bothered) so our silver languishes in cupboards, sealed in plastic, never seeing the light of day. The irony is that we pay big dollars for restaurants to treat us by using the very implements of elegance that we forego ourselves!

I love silver - although I admit I do not have a lot of it. What really appeals to me is the silver that is used for entertaining. Unusual sugar bowls,( like the one in the picture above - it looks like a coal bin with a little coal scoop), card holders, serving dishes, and of course cutlery. I have a good selection of serving utensils. These pack a lot of punch when they are used with simpler pieces.

I, like most of you, don't like to polish silver, so I don't let it get black in the first place (well, most of the time anyway). Here's how to do it:

 

• If you don't plan on displaying it then place the piece inside a heavy weight zip lock freezer bag. The plastic is kind to silver. NEVER put food wrap on the pieces. Did you know that the plastic actually attaches itself to the silver?
• Use silver strips in cutlery drawers to keep tarnish to a minimum.
• Use a cloth to do "in between" clean ups. They are are very gentle and you can just pick up a piece of silver and mindlessly buff it while you are watching television.
• Use a silver foam such as Goddards for the gentlest clean. Wash it off to make sure there's no silver cleaner left - and watch your silver shine!!
• Only if your silver is black should you use liquid silver cleaners. Be careful that you don't scratch your piece.
• Don't buy cheap silver cleaners or polishes that claim to be suitable for all metals. Cleaning brass or copper is not the same as cleaning silver - you will ruin your silver.
• Use your silver. Treat yourself in the manner to which you should be accustomed - no plastic for this cookie!

 

This is a good time to buy silver. Fads and trends go around and silver plate won't always be the bargain it is right now. Happy hunting!

 

 

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