Genealogy Chat

Nicky

You may find the site below of use to you. It shows pictures of silver hallmarks from around the world and the relevant dates for them. Although you will still need an expert valuation from an auction house like Linda suggested, at least you should be able to work out the age of your silver before you go.

Michael


http://www.925-1000.com/index.html

Thanks for this information Linda. I don't want to sell the silver, it's too precious for me to do that as it would have belonged to great, great, great grandparents - I am just interested in their monetary value so I can get them insured. I live in the Berkshire/Oxfordshire area so will have a look to see what auction houses are local to me. Regards.

take them to an auction house and they will give you a free valuation, especially if they think that you may be thinking about selling them lol. There is a higher quality auction house fairly near here, they advertise when the particular specialists will be there. I took some jewellery which had been passed down to me. I wouldn't go to the type of auction place which sells general furniture etc, it needs to be one of the better ones
If you want a certificate for insurance purposes, you will need to take them to a jewellers and pay for one

Hi, I was lucky enough to inherit from a family member when they died about five years ago a wonderful array of old photos, documents, diaries, scrapbooks etc which I have been steadily working through and cataloguing -it's been a fascinating insight into my ancestors. However, also amongst the papers were a number of silver spoons (some of them must be 200 years old) - some of them have initials on. I have kept them locked away but it's just occured to me that I should really get them valued. Does anyone know how/where I would go to to get an independent valuation? This it outside of my area of experience - do I go to a silversmiths, antique room, auction house? Does anyone out there have any knowledge about this area? Many thanks. Nicky