My mother is moving into an assisted living place and is moving out of her home. She has many silver items including this Gorham Tea Service. My sisters and I are not familiar with silver sets at all. This set has been passed down many generations. We were hoping for some information on this, where we can sell our items, as well as value. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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A good sales channel is Etsy and Ebay. Large pieces are usually sold for their weight, sometimes even slightly below that. But if you go to Ebay and use the advanced search, you can search for sold items and see how much people are paying for items like yours. I think this is the best option for a more realistic pricing.
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Next generation has no interest in continuing to pass it down, I suspect. Unfortunate, but that’s quite common these days.
Bear in mind that there’s a huge difference in value between a set that’s sterling silver, like yours, and silverplate. Plated sets have almost no precious metal in them, and are sold purely as decorative items. These days, they’re a very tough sell, at any price.
Solid sterling, on the other hand, has a melt value, i.e., the value of the raw silver they contain. Get a gram scale and weigh everything. Then multiply by the current spot price of silver, which is hovering around $1 per gram. Multiply by .925, since sterling isn’t pure, 100% silver, which would be too soft to make things like this. Then figure in the profit margin for the dealer in scrap silver. That sets the “floor” price.
But these days, things are sometimes selling for less than their melt value, just because no one wants to go to the trouble of finding a dealer to sell them to. Not much of a collector market for silver tea services, either, unless they’re something more special, like genuine Georgian or early Victorian pieces.
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We wade into the cult of ugly matter, forgetting about timeless beauty… Man is a primitive creature.
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That is a stunning silver service and appears to be in very good condition.
I consider it to be worth much more than “melt” value and hope you will make an effort to
find someone who appreciates the set. Gorham is a desirable and sought after silver company.
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