Magnificent Set of Antique Silver-Gilt French Empire Teaspoons

Magnificent Set of Antique Silver-Gilt French Empire Teaspoons
Photo Credit: Only-At-The-Antique-Boutique

Magnificent Set of Antique Silver-Gilt French Empire Teaspoons

Buy It Now Price: $596.25 (price as of 2017; item no longer available)

Pros:

-Here is a magnificent set of one dozen silver-gilt antique French Empire teaspoons.  They are covered with sumptuous scallop and bright-cut engraved decoration, even their bowls.  The effect is not only absolutely stunning, but also completely in character with their 1830s to 1850s provenance.

-These French Empire teaspoons or coffee spoons measure 5.625 inches (14.3 cm) in length and weigh 303.6 grams (9.76 troy ounces) in total.  With silver currently trading at $16.62 per troy ounce, the entire set contains about $154 worth of silver.

–The French Empire style evolved from Neo-Classical design and was dominant during the reign of Emperor Napoleon I, circa 1800 to 1815.  It spanned the entirety of the visual arts, from monumental architecture to furniture and interior design to the minor arts like silverware.  French Empire style tapped the grandeur of ancient Rome and Egypt for its inspiration and was far less austere or restrained than its Neo-Classical predecessor.  The French Empire style was popular both in France and internationally; it experienced intermittent revivals through the 1860s.

-These silver-gilt French Empire teaspoons are hallmarked with the iconic French 1st quality Minerva hallmark, indicating 950 fine, solid silver construction.  This is a higher purity than the world-renowned sterling silver (925 fine) standard.

-The quality of these silver-gilt French Empire teaspoons is incredibly high.  Not only does the craftsmanship represent the pinnacle of early to mid 19th century Continental European silversmithing, but each individual spoon also weighs 25.3 grams (0.813 troy ounces) – a very heavy weight for a silver spoon intended for tea, coffee or dessert.

-Because these antique silver-gilt French Empire teaspoons were made sometime before 1860, there is a fair chance that they were created using the long-lost mercury gilding technique.  This superior method of gold plating was abandoned by the late 19th century because it was toxic to gilders.  However, any silver-gilt item created via mercury gilding is completely safe for regular use, even in direct contact with food or drink.

-Given the way these gorgeous 175 year old antique silver teaspoons perfectly capture the French Empire style, I think the asking price of just under $600 is quite reasonable, if not a bargain.

 

Cons:

-This set of French Empire teaspoons is actually two separate 6-piece sets made by different Paris-based silversmiths at around the same time.  The first silversmith was Edmond Jamet, who worked between 1831 and 1847 at 15 place Dauphine.  The second maker, Louis-Patient Cottat, was active from 1831 to 1866 at 47 quai de l’Horloge.  Some purists might consider this an assembled set and, therefore, of lower value.  I disagree with this assessment.  These French Empire teaspoons match perfectly and, even if crafted by different silversmiths, were still made more-or-less contemporaneously with one another.  In my opinion, it would be foolish to denigrate this set of exquisite antique French silver teaspoons just because of this minor historical quirk.

-These teaspoons are monogrammed on their backs with the initials “MD”.  Some antique collectors will not purchase fine, old silver with monograms because they feel it impinges on the “purity” of the piece.  I think monograms add to the history of a piece and shouldn’t impact their value.

Tangible Investments and the Global Bubble Economy

Tangible Investments and the Global Bubble Economy

Bubbles are dangerous things.  They are slippery, amorphous entities – difficult to diagnose and even harder to avoid once discovered.  They burrow their way into the public psyche, slowly driving otherwise reasonable people mad with both greed and pride.

Perhaps the only thing more financially destructive than a bubble is an entire bubble economy.  Of course, such an unusual phenomenon is incredibly rare, perhaps occurring only once every century at best.  Alas, we do not live in financially normal times at the present.

Instead we labor under the burden of central banks who, rather disturbingly, believe bubbles are a wonderful way to sustainably grow an economy.  This absurd tenet of modern central banking is akin to an irrational, cult-like faith.  In fact, actively striving for a bubble economy is so bizarre that for a long time I couldn’t figure out what the hell the world’s central bankers were thinking.

After all, throughout history, every major financial bubble has been followed by an inevitable economic bust.  And the pain from those devastating economic busts was always commensurate with the magnitude of the preceding bubble.  Simply put, the bigger the bubble, the bigger the bust.  So what central banker is his right mind would want to create a bubble economy?

Then I read an article on the Financial Times’ website titled “The Importance of Bubbles That Did Not Burst” (warning: this article is behind a paywall).  This article posits that while some bubbles burst with disastrous results, there are many that don’t.  This shocking assertion comes via a Yale School of Management professor named William Goetzmann.

A self-proclaimed expert on stocks, hedge funds, real estate and art, Mr. Goetzmann conducted a study that defined a bubble as a doubling of the stock market within a one year period.  This is, of course, a terrible way to define bubbles.  There are many, many instances other than bubbles where stock markets double.  For example, recessions often cause equity markets to overshoot on the downside.  The stock market doubling from such depressed levels is normal and cannot be considered a bubble by any stretch of the imagination.

Predictably, both Mr. Goetzmann and the Financial Times article based on his study conclude that some bubbles are good.  You just have to make sure your bubble doesn’t burst, at which point you are golden!  In light of this terrifyingly naive conclusion, which would probably garner the average elementary school child no better than a C-, the Federal Reserve’s determination to give us a 100% bubble economy makes more sense.

Once we stop laughing (or crying) at the intellectual inadequacy of the unfortunate Mr. Goetzmann, we should cut him some slack.  After all, he’s a finance professor at Yale who has probably never had to change his car’s oil or mow his own lawn.  Like most ivory-tower academics, he is utterly disconnected from reality, including the calamitous after effects of large-scale asset bubbles.

He didn’t see the last financial crisis coming in 2008 and he won’t see the next one either.  When Yale gives you a paycheck no matter how outlandish your ideas are, you don’t need to be particularly bright.  Personally, I’d rather get my financial advice from a community college drop-out than an Ivy League professor.

So what recourse does the average person have?  It is obvious that we are currently living in a full blown global bubble economy.  The S&P 500 is trading near all time highs on several different valuation measures.  U.S. real estate prices are as high, or higher, than they were at the peak of the 2007 mortgage bubble.  Large corporations have been issuing record amounts of debt in order to pay out dividends and buy back shares.  Any of these circumstances is worthy of being called a bubble on its own.  Taken together, they indicate a bubble economy of unprecedented proportions.

In the end, I think tangible assets are one of the few reasonable alternatives in a world plagued by serial bubbles.  Bubbles, by their very nature, represent an economy that has made more promises than it can possibly keep.  Tangible investments that you have physical possession of – fine art, antiques and precious metals, among others – are an effective antidote to the false promises of the global bubble economy.

This is one of the reasons I started the Antique Sage website.  I want to show people that art and antiques are a viable alternative to the overvalued paper assets overrunning our dysfunctional bubble economy.  Our central bank overlords may improbably believe that they can inflate bubbles that won’t burst, but smart investors are making preparations for a very different outcome.

Sterling Silverware – The Original Savings Account

Sterling Silverware - The Original Savings Account

Silver is a fascinating substance.  It is a highly reflective white metal that is wonderfully malleable and ductile.  It is also an excellent conductor of both heat and electricity.  In many ways, silver is the quintessential metal, possessing all the beneficial attributes common to metals without the undesirable propensity to oxide or corrode found in base metals.

So it isn’t surprising that silver has been used as money for thousands of years by mankind.  However, pure silver is too soft for coinage, silverware or jewelry.  Therefore, it is usually alloyed with other metals to improve its strength and hardness.  The most famous of these silver alloys is sterling silver, an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% base metal – usually copper.

I’m going to use the term sterling silver in this article as a catchall for solid silver, even though other silver alloys have also been used.  In silverware, these other alloys have varied from German 12 loth silver, which is 75% fine, up to French 1st quality, an alloy of 95% silver that is purer than sterling.  In any case, the differences between these various silver alloys are largely academic.  They all look and behave very much alike in practice.

Although coins are the best known form of silver as money, sterling silverware gradually developed into a monetary alternative in medieval Europe.  For many centuries, sterling flatware and hollowware were effectively used as a primitive savings account.  This tradition began with the European aristocracy and was eventually adopted by the wealthy merchant class.

Sterling silverware was faithfully passed down from parent to child within rich households over successive generations.  As a secure, tangible form of wealth in a very uncertain world, it is no surprise the wealthy favored sterling silverware.  But it also served a very important second purpose.  Silver possesses bactericidal properties – the ability to kill many harmful microbes on contact – that made it ideal for tableware.

This is where sayings like “born with a silver spoon in his mouth” originated.  The wealthy and powerful naturally gravitated towards sterling silverware because it afforded a degree of protection against disease.  In contrast, the lower classes had to use cheaper wooden tableware that conferred no such benefit.

This European preference for sterling silverware was also passed down to their American colonists.  Most colonists in the 18th century considered a well-appointed silver cabinet to be an absolute necessity for a well-to-do household.  This was particularly the case because silver and gold coins were often in short supply in colonial America.  Consequently, sterling silverware was widely viewed as an alternative savings account.

Sterling silver’s reign as another form of savings persisted until the 1860s.  That is the decade when Nevada’s famous Comstock Lode was commercially exploited, flooding the global market with cheap silver.  As a result, most European governments reacted by officially demonetizing silver.  This meant an individual could no longer bring raw silver (or silverware) to a national mint and have it converted directly into money.

The final step in silver’s demonetization occurred about 100 years later, in the 1960s.  From the 1860s until the 1960s, many nations had continued to use silver in their fiduciary coinage.  Fiduciary coinage is when the bullion value of the metal used in a coin is less than its face value.  Fiduciary coinage is, in other words, token coinage.

As the spot price of silver began to rise in the 1960s, many countries found that the bullion value of their fiduciary silver coins began to exceed their stated face value, thus leading to widespread hoarding.  Most countries quickly removed silver from their coinage, replacing it with base metal.  For example, the U.S. changed over in 1964 while Switzerland and Canada followed suit in 1967.

This global demonetization had a devastating effect on sterling silverware.  Once considered a surrogate for money, silver soon became just another commodity.  This, in conjunction with changing lifestyles, led to a broad decline in the use of silver flatware.  Sterling silverware is now widely viewed as completely out of step with today’s informal living and appropriate only for formal occasions.  This is a complete falsehood, but it does grant intelligent collectors, investors and average people a rarely seen investment opportunity.

Right now it is possible to acquire fine antique sterling silverware for unbelievably low prices.  For example, I recently came across a beautiful set of six French silver-gilt teaspoons that were made in Paris during the Belle Époque era, circa 1900.  They are classically styled and eminently usable, even though they are more than a century old.

And the asking price is only $200, not much more than the average monthly cell phone or cable bill.  This heirloom quality sterling silverware will not only last for hundreds of years to come, but will almost certainly appreciate in value as well.  Sterling silverware, the original savings account, is still a great place to stash your extra cash.

Superb Antique Victorian 18 Karat Gold Thimble

Superb Antique Victorian 18 Karat Gold Thimble
Photo Credit: RomanJewelsGold

Superb Antique Victorian 18 Karat Gold Thimble

Buy It Now Price: $798 (price as of 2017; item no longer available)

Pros:

-This superb antique 18 karat gold thimble perfectly reflects the ornate, upper-class Victorian sensibilities of the Gilded Age.  It was made in America sometime in the late 19th century.  This attribution is supported by the “18K” hallmark, which indicates an American origin.  The domed shape of the top of the thimble, when coupled with its florid Victorian decoration, strongly suggests a late 19th century date.

-This Victorian 18 karat gold thimble is 22 mm (0.875 inches) tall by 15 mm (0.59 inches) in diameter and weighs a considerable 9.2 grams (0.2958 troy ounces).  It is marked as a size 8 on the interior of the thimble and also engraved with the monogram “D.F.” in the same location.

-This 18 karat gold thimble is among the heaviest examples that I have seen – a sure indicator of its high quality construction.  The typical weight range for antique, solid gold thimbles is anywhere from 3 to 8 grams.  This thimble, in contrast, weighs in at 9.2 grams and contains over 0.22 troy ounces of pure gold – about the same as an old British gold sovereign or a pre-1933 U.S. half eagle ($5) gold coin!

-Sewing was a required skill for practically all middle and upper class women in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  Unlike today when clothing is often discarded as it becomes damaged or outdated, clothing was regularly mended, altered or otherwise modified in households before World War II.

-This antique 18 karat gold thimble is in almost perfect condition, with no visible wear.  It would appear that this item was so highly valued by its owners that it was considered “too good” to use.  If you are interested in buying this gold thimble, I would also strongly suggest that you also refrain from using it in order to keep it pristine!

-There are a considerable number of high-end 18th and 19th century sewing kits made from ivory, gold, tortoiseshell, silver or other luxury materials available in the antique marketplace.  These are often referred to as “etui” in the collecting community, a word derived from the French which means a small box or case containing sewing implements, cosmetics or other personal items.  Gold thimbles are simply a subset of these fascinating, antique sewing accoutrements.

 

Cons:

-The asking price of almost $800 is extremely expensive for an antique 18 karat gold thimble.  Most solid gold thimbles have prices ranging from about $100 to perhaps $400.  However, the quality of this particular 18 karat gold thimble is so superlative that I would strongly consider paying the premium price.  This is a classic example of investing in a high end antique by buying the best of the best.

-This 18 karat gold thimble does not appear to have a maker’s mark – either that, or the seller did not take a photo of the mark.  If it does have an intact maker’s mark, it would be on the inside of the top of the thimble.  Although this antique gold thimble is already extremely desirable, if its maker could be identified it would be even more desirable.