Why does Elkington sterling hollowware go so cheaply when Elkington ornate silver plated pieces are amongst the highest priced in the market?

GREG ARBUTINE
Aug 19
3 min read

Frederick Elkington Hollowware - This 1874 presentation tankard sold at Heritage Auctions for $3,750 in April of 2019. This equates to $61 per troy ounce and back in year 2019 silver was at only $20 per troy ounce. This went pretty cheap considering the workmanship and quality. If this had been Tiffany, George Shiebler, Gorham or Puiforcat it could had gone for easily $100 per troy ounce or more.

Elkington of England Silver Plated Hollowware - This Elkington Silver Plated Vase sold for $2,000 in year 2015 at Heritage Auctions. This is only around half of what a comparable sterling silver version would sell at. That's a huge sum considering most silver plated pieces from other manufacturers sell for between 1/10th to around 1/20th of what their sterling silver counterparts would bring.

Why does Elkington sterling silver hollowware go for such modest prices of only double or triple melt price when Elkington ornate silver plated pieces are amongst the highest priced in the market, some of which are almost the price of a comparable sterling silver piece?

Elkington Company of England was the inventor of silver electroplating in the early 1800's and over the decades in the 19th Century the company experimented with and created many presentation pieces like shields, trophies, vases, epergnes and other decorative silver plated items. Elkington's main thrust in its business model was producing fine quality silver plated for the masses. However, the company decided to also create some attention getting jaw dropping plated pieces as a tool to gain notoriety and publicity for their company overall. A jewelry or department store would display one or two of these "too good to be true" show stoppers and then convert the customer to more modest pieces which was the intent of this marketing strategy all along. These wow pieces are now amongst some of the most coveted pieces out there in today's market.

Elkington did make sterling silver as well, and they were very good pieces. However, the company never really went over the top on the sterling silver like they did with the silver plated pieces and as a result today's collectors don't generally recognize Elkington as one of the very very best manufacturer's of sterling silver. What the collectors really want is Elkington's opulent over the top silver plated pieces that incorporate the use of mixed gilding work, super ornate and 3 dimensional figural depictions, neo classical themes and more. The sterling pieces were manufactured well, but few silver pieces were ever made in the same pantheon as the silver plated show pieces were made.

Conclusion: The Elkington ornate silver plated pieces are the best of the best and far exceed the prices received for silver plated items made by other manufacturers. Unfortunately, Elkington's sterling pieces although nice, are just not as noteworthy as the top tiered silver plated pieces they produced.

Sell Your Silver to: The Silver Museum LLC

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Greg Arbutine

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