Antique Silver Platters

So other than being up here in Utah for the summer to escape the heat of Arizona was to help with preparations for my niece’s wedding next month. Crazylegs was the first grandchild of our family, and holds a special place in all of our hearts. Her and I have been especially close over the years, and is the only one that continuously stayed in contact with me since I moved away eleven years ago.

To say she is very meticulous about her wedding is an understatement. She has been dreaming about it since a young girl. I have been helping her parents with various projects they still need to get done, including building and painting a wedding welcome sign, stamping embroidered initials on napkins, ironing wedding tablecloths, and the biggest project of all : finding antique sliver platters, bowls and serving utensils for her wedding day food. It has been interesting to say the least.

It started a few days after I arrived in Salt Lake. Some of the platters had already been purchased, but Crazylegs needed help for me and her Mom to “tarnish” them. What I found out was this meant we need to go through various methods to clean the platters as they were too dark for her liking. I did this using both a varnisher with a microfiber cloth as well as making a paste out of baking soda and water, then rubbing that in circular motions over the platters, then washing them with dish soap. This worked to perfection, but they now looked too “new”. This is where the fun began, and I use that word sarcastically.

Our first approach to dark the shiny newness off was to patina the silver platters using the “egg method“. Many a fingertip was burned as I was peeling these straight from the boiling pot so they would be as hot as possible for my sister in law to quickly mash then put under the platters and seal them in a garbage bag. I was intrigued by this method to see what the end result would be. Sadly it was mostly an epic fail, and the eggs only created a dark circular spot in the direct area of the mashed eggs, not the entire platter. So we went back to step one, and I clean the dark egg patina back off the silver platters. Unfortunately, one of the silver plated platters started to chip off the silver, so that one had to be scraped entirely. This meant I had to go shopping to local antique shops in the Valley to find a replacement.

I spent the night researching and mapping out Antique Shops for the following day. I was determined to be successful and help a stressed Mom and equally stressed out niece. I started by going downtown to Capital City Antiques. I had forgotten how much I love these type of stores. I do have a few antiques at my house, mostly old gas station signs, National and State Park memorabilia, and a few pieces of indoor and outdoor pottery. I found a ton of things that piqued my own interest, but failed to find the right size/style that was needed for this project.

I tried a couple of Goodwill stores as well, but it was a bust. Next on my list was Cobwebs Antiques & Collectibles. After looking in every nook and cranny over both levels, I finally found a salad bowl that I thought would work. I excitedly sent my niece a picture for her approval.

I needed to download a measuring tape app onto my phone to see if the bowl would be large enough. It was also $50 which was a tad out of the price range. Price didn’t matter though, as it was two inches too small. I found a few platters as well, but she need a 17 inch circumference and everything I found was 15 inches. I was beginning to understand their stress levels.

I headed to the next two Antique shops on my list, both of which didn’t have what she needed. However I did pass a store that was not on my list, MoonGlass Antiques. It was small and as I entered I didn’t hold out much hope, but just as I was about to leave, I found a tiny section that was full of antique silver and at the very bottom of a stack of platter was one that I thought might just work. I asked the nice ladies running the store to measure it for me, and BOOM! it was indeed a 17 inch circumference and my niece was thrilled. “Buy it!”

Mission Accomplished. Now back to trying to get these to the patina style she wanted. More boiled eggs, more internet searching and YouTube videos to try and find a technique that would give us the results we all wanted. After attempts, some tears, and various degrees of success, we came up with what I phrased as the “Raised Ring of Egg” technique. I had my brother cut some triangle blocks from a piece of wood so we could prop up the platters about 1/2 an inch from the surface. We then spread the mashed eggs in a circle to match the circumference of the platters and bowls, then sealed in garbage bags and let time do it’s magic.

In the end, we finally achieved out desired outcome. Mom was relieved, Niece was very happy, and I was glad to have helped, as well as now I have a new hobby to get back into during retirement. Antiquing.