Well done you!! New subscriber here, have been collecting antique silver for 50 years. Love these finds. Looking forward to seeing your other posts. Lawrie in Philadelphia
Dear Lawrie, Thankyou! In 50 years you will have seen and done it all and know exactly how it feels to land “a white whale” but also how rarely it happens these days. My pleasure to share the find. Michael
How absolutely brilliant, well spotted does not begin to cover this. The real lesson is that you need to be specialised across the board in beautiful stuff.
You have every right to be smug Michael - it’s gorgeous!! Well done you for finding this “gem” as you said. The hand carving and the earlier rock crystal, oh my word, such an interesting item. Thank you for sharing this with us. Also, thank you for the tip re: cleaning.
@@michaelbaggott-rk1lh Indeed I could do that ..if I had any silver gilt! It is far below your field of interest but we were given a nice Ashberry deMilo canteen of cutlery for our wedding 59 years ago. I lost a teaspoon in a house in Dinard years ago. I looked for one on Ebay in England..nothing ;Postage 23 GBPounds for most things. I found some pretty spoons and pastry forks post free in America. They had no measurements so struck out in faith. They are coffee spoons ( I had some) and pastry forks which are new to me. Marked in their boxes as 17/6 probably dates them. They are tarnished so I am going to have fun cleaning them. Not a patch on valuable spoons, but fun nonetheless! Blessings from an expat in Texas.
Aah. That glorious feeling when the hammer falls at a fraction of what you were willing to pay. It's the years of study and the accumulation of knowledge and experience that lead you to such finds. Congratulations and well spotted.
Well done sir, fascinating item. I have a piece of tarnished silver gilt in the cupboard....will be adding a box of matches to my weekly Asda shopping list tommorrow!
There's a part of me that knew, as I watched the video, that everything turned out all right, since there was nothing horrible hinted at in the title, and you no doubt were being quite careful -- but I nonetheless couldn't fully suppress a worry that you'd accidentally drop the piece as you turned it over and explained its nature and significance to us. And this made me wonder... It seems like it would be a great video that would generate many views if a clip was added near the end where you bungle a replica that falls to the floor and shatters into a million pieces. Maybe we'd not see it shatter, but only hear it, and see your face react. This might have a remarkable (and perhaps wickedly humorous) impact considering the sincere and urbane emphasis you put on how rare and valuable the thing is -- especially if there were many out-of-character "bleeps" and other presumed expletives that filled your shock-filled reaction to the accident, or perhaps just a stunned silence, followed by a sudden cut-out. You could explain in the fine print of the description that it's just a joke! Merely thinking out loud... having just come back from a rougher section of RU-vid. 😉
