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Author	Topic: cleaning silver
violino55 Posts: 2 Registered: Mar 2010	posted 03-12-2010 05:44 PM Hi, My name is Donna. 46 years ago I inherited a silver tea set from my grandmother when she died. It was badly tarnished at that time. I dreamed of someday displaying them on a table. Well I took it out and tried to clean it. I using silver polish and buffing it by hand was useless. I ended up using a dremmel on it. I fear I may have damaged some of it. Is there a better way? Recently, I cleaned it up enough to find brands and numbers. I was disappointed to learn it wasn't a matching set. I was able to research other items with the tea set to aprox. 100 years old. Now I'm really curious how old the tea set items are, especially since each piece has a number. There must be a catalog out there that can tell me what that number means. Can anyone help me. Here is the info: Tea server "Homan Plate on nickel silver WM. Mounts (USA) 0629" Serving tray "BENEDICT 1134" Creamer and sugar bowl: "Royal Rocheste 2665" There is also a salt and pepper shaker no company, just numbers 123 ?? (two numbers I can't read) Does that mean anything? Thanks! IP: Logged
agleopar Posts: 850 Registered: Jun 2004	posted 03-12-2010 07:03 PM Violino, what kind of damage? Is it silver plate or sterling can we see it? IP: Logged
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 03-13-2010 05:58 PM Homan was in business from the 1860's down to the Depression of the 30's. The company was based in Cincinnati. Benedict was in business from the 1890's until the early 50's. I do not find a Royale company listed. Your pieces are silverplated. With a picture we could identify age. We can not tell age from a mark alone. It is quite typical for sets to consist of miscellaneous pieces. It may have been assembled over a period of time. A stand alone sugar and creamer were frequently sold as a fruit set. You could probably invent a family history of how they were acquired. Many older sets did not have a matching tray, probably because the machinery and tanks are quite different from those used for tea sets. It is my impression that Homan products were frequently sold outside the jewelry store venues. They were available at rural general stores, as premiums for sales promotions, sold thru magazines and catalogs. The problem you are having polishing sounds like lacquer. This was put on pieces to protect them from pollution. Take nail polish remover and apply to the piece. If lacquered, you should get pieces coming off and the silver below. But first wash the pieces in hot soapy (Ivory is very good) water. Stored silver can get a build up of crud on it that is difficult to polish off but will wash off. Sometimes I have had good luck running the silver thru a dishwasher with gel soap. IP: Logged

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