About Michelle Lieberman Expertise My expertise is in the area of American sterling silver and coin silver flatware and holloware, including identifying silversmiths and makers, types and patterns of flatware and their usage. I am unable to answer questions pertaining to silverplate or foreign silver.
Experience With over 25 years experience in selling vintage silver, I now devote much of my time educating others in this field.
Education/Credentials BA California State University Los Angeles
Question I have a set of Tiffany Persian, monogrammed, that has come through our family...I have been trying to figure out what it might be worth, how to know where to inquire about it, how much it might sell for (pricing really varies from site to site). Also, I have measured the pieces but am wondering how to be sure of the exact names of the pieces so I am accurate. We have 12 knives, 12 serving (?) spoons, 12 dinner forks, 12 dessert forks (?), 6 salad forks, 11 soup (?) spoons, 12 teaspoons; all in a wooden box lined with felt (does not say Tiffany on it, though).
Could you give me any ideas on how to proceed, pricing, identification, etc? Thanks so much, Pam
Answer Hello Pam.
The value of your set is going to depend on what you want that value for. If you want an idea what it will realistically sell for, going by past auction sales is the best way to go. At a good high end auction, $13,000 TO $16,000 for the set would be right. Value for insurance purposes is a bit higher, more like $15,000 to $18,000.
As for identification, I can give you some generalities. Whether your knives and forks are dinner size or luncheon size is going to depend on the length. I have a great book on Tiffany flatware which may have this information, but don't have it at my disposal right now - I'll look this up this weekend and see if it's in there.
Serving spoons are normally in the 8" to 9" range.
Soup spoons should have a round bowl. There were also different types of soup spoons made, depending on their intended use, the main difference between one type of soup spoon and other being their size. Bouillon spoons are the smallest (and if you have only one type of soup spoon in your set, it is doubtful you have bouillon spoons). Cream soup spoons are the middle size, and gumbo spoons are the largest. If your soup spoons have an oval bowl then then are not soup spoons but rather dessert spoons (these are usually about 7 1/2" long).
Now whether you have 12 dessert forks and 6 salad forks or vice versa is going to depend on how Tiffany themselves made and marketed them. The two should be very similar in size and style. If one of them is much larger or smaller than the other, then you may have something else entirely. If they are of a similar size and appearance, going by generalities the tines on the salad forks should be all the same size, the cutting tine on a dessert fork will be wider than the other three.
There is some pretty good information here on piece identification:
