Do you have any silver spoons in a drawer at home? If so, they may be valuable, especially if they're Irish.
Mr Jimmy Weldon, an international specialist in Irish silver, based in Clarendon Street, Dublin, says Irish silver can be 200 times rarer than English silver. A basic Irish Georgian soup spoon from about 1800 should fetch £100 compared to about £40 for a similar English spoon. An Irish Georgian tea spoon should fetch about £30, while an English one might be worth £10 to £12, he says.
Scarce Irish silver is even more valuable. For instance, a Cork silver tea spoon should fetch £75. A single Limerick tea spoon from 1785 to 1790 could be worth £200, while a set of six could fetch up to £2,000, says Mr Weldon.
Irish silver spoons from the late 18th century with bright cut handles (an engraved line along the handle edge which catches the light) are highly prized and should fetch £55 for a tea spoon or £200 for a good table spoon. That's about double the value a standard Irish early-to-mid-19th century fiddle pattern spoon (shaped like a violin) would fetch.
Mr Alex Butcher, head of silver at Christie's in South Kensington, London, says his interest in silver spoons developed when a minimal investment he made as a schoolboy brought him a handsome return almost overnight.
He bought six 1920s silver spoons for a penny each at a church bizarre in 1979. He took them to an antique dealer who weighed them and offered him £17 sterling "which then was a huge amount".
It was the Bunker-Hunt period, when two Texas billionaires tried to corner the market and depleted stocks of silver in the US and London in 1979. Silver bullion shot up from about £2.50 or £3 per ounce to £22 an ounce, he explains.
But the speculators didn't anticipate the amount of silver in private hands. Individuals sold silver tea sets which had been worth perhaps £150 for many times that value. By late 1979 or early 1980, the market was flooded and the bubble burst.
Prices fell from about £22 an ounce to about £3 an ounce. "And it's been at about £3 or even £2 for the last 15 years," Mr Butcher says.
The most valuable English silver spoons date from before 1700. They tend to turn up in unlikely places. Mr Butcher has sold a silver spoon for £16,000 which was unearthed from a thatched roof.
Another was found in a soakaway kitchen drain at a castle in Kent. It fetched £1,800 sterling.
A silver spoon was often given as a christening or wedding present. "It's the sort of thing you can stick in a drawer and pass it down to the next generation. It doesn't take up any room."
A sale of early English silver spoons at Christie's on November 10th next includes: a 14th century lion sejant (seated on hind paws) spoon with leopard's head mark. The leopard's head is the mark for sterling silver made in London. Guide price: £6,000 to £8,000 sterling.
A pair of Henry VII slip top (angled at the top or finial) spoons made in London circa 1501 is expected to fetch £5,000 to £7,000 sterling.
A very rare Charles II provincial disc-end (a flattened tiddlywink shaped finial) spoon by Thomas Mangy of York, circa 1675. Estimate: £2,000 to £3,000 sterling. The disc is engraved on one side with the coat of arms of the Strickland family. The other side has a skull with the phrase "Live to Die" and "Die to Live".
A pair of apostle spoons, that is, with cast figures of apostles soldered on, is estimated at £1,500 £2,000 sterling. Another apostle spoon has the figure of Christ guide price: £1,500£2,000 sterling. A rare 17th century Virgin and Child finial spoon is estimated at £1,500-£2,000 sterling.
