I don’t recall when I bought my first silver-overlay glass serving dish at auction. Most likely, it was among a lot of glassware containing a piece I really wanted. But after I got it home and examined it, I was enthralled.
Next time, I actually bought a bowl on purpose. So, I’m featuring silver-overlay glassware as my next neat Christmas gift item purchased at auction. Auctions and flea markets are great places to look for impeccable gifts at inexpensive prices. I had a lot of nice vintage Stangl antique gold candy dishes once that a friend bought for her Delta Sigma Theta sorors.
Unlike my other Christmas-themed items (Stangl platter and vintage Christmas cards), these have nothing on them that says Christmas. No holly. No Santa. No tree. They’re just elegant: two serving dishes and a cruet (without a top). The dishes would make a perfect gift for the person who loves to entertain because they’re classy and eye-catching. Good ooh! and ahh! pieces.
The silver is inlaid inside the bowls and outside the cruet. One of the dishes, although unmarked, appear to be the Cambridge Caprice pattern with its swirled glass. The silver design is flowers in bloom. One dish seems to have been used, the other does not. The website myantiquemall.com offered some dos and donts for serving food in such dishes.
I’ve seen silver overlay on perfume bottles, water pitchers, vases, candy dishes, drinking glasses, dresser jars, flasks and fountain pins. And the glass is not always clear; there’s also ruby/cranberry, green, cobalt blue and more.
I’m assuming that the pieces I have are silver deposit rather than silver overlay. The words are sometimes used interchangeably. Overlay, as I found in my Google research, is a little thicker on the glass, while deposit is thinner.
The silver is placed on the glass in a process called electroplating, which was effected around 1889 in England by a man named Oscar Pierre Erard, according to myantiquemall.com. There was a problem, however: the reverse side of the silver would tarnish and look ugly on a dish bound for the family dinner table. Four years later, a New Jersey man named John H. Scharling patented a process that kept the reverse side white and tarnish-free. From then on, silver overlay glassware developed an avid following.
The Gorham Co. became one of the primary makers, placing its silver designs on glassware supplied by such companies as Quezal Art Glass and Decorating Co.
My check of the prices on the glassware on Ebay showed that they were reasonable. Many were unsold, likely because they were silver deposit and not very old. I also found some of the most gorgeous high-end pieces, so beautiful they look like works of arts, on the website of Nelson and Nelson Antiques in New York. They’re magnificient.
Silver overlay or silver deposit pieces make wonderful gifts at the holidays or any other time.
