More than metal: what you are really valuing

A drawer of old spoons can be three things at once: a small store of bullion, a piece of design history, and the memory of every Sunday lunch it has ever served. Understanding which of those is driving the price will save you a great deal of disappointment — and, now and then, a very pleasant surprise. Silver cutlery sits where metal markets, craftsmanship and fashion meet, and all three move independently of one another.

The reassuring part is that you do not need to be an expert to make a sensible judgement. Four factors do most of the work: weight, maker, pattern and condition. Read them in that order and you will rarely be far out.

Weight and metal content: the foundation of value

Start by asking what the piece is actually made of. British sterling silver is 925 parts per thousand pure silver and carries the lion passant. Britannia standard, at 958 parts, was compulsory between 1697 and 1720 and appears occasionally afterwards; it is worth marginally more per gram. Both are real silver, and both have a melt value that rises and falls with the market.

Silver plate is a different creature altogether. Marks such as EPNS, EP or "silver on copper" mean a microscopic layer of silver deposited over a base metal. Plate is bought for how it looks, not for what it weighs, and wear shows itself as patches of yellow or pink where the base metal shows through. A heavily worn plated set has little commercial value, though it can still dress a table beautifully.

Then there is the knife problem. Table knife handles are usually hollow and filled with resin, pitch or plaster, while blades are steel. A full canteen's worth of knives may hold far less silver than the spoons sitting beside them. Spoons and forks are where the weight is, and worn spoon bowls shed grams quietly across a century of stirring.

Maker and pattern: the details that lift a set

Hallmarks are your best friend here. Look for the standard mark, the assay office mark, a date letter and the maker's mark — older pieces may also carry a duty mark. The assay offices have their own devices: the leopard's head for London, an anchor for Birmingham, a castle for Edinburgh, Hibernia for Dublin, and so on. The date letter lets you pin a piece to a single year, which matters enormously when comparing otherwise similar spoons.

Maker matters too. Work from a well-regarded Victorian or early twentieth-century workshop will command a premium over an anonymous provincial piece, particularly where the quality of finishing is visibly finer. Complete, documented sets do better than assembled ones.

Pattern is where taste meets the market. Kings and Hanoverian remain the classics for a formal table; plain Fiddle, Old English, Thread and Bead suit almost anything. Sets of twelve in a pattern still being produced are easy to add to and hold their appeal. Rare or discontinued patterns can be worth more per piece to the collector trying to complete a service — the difficulty is finding that collector at the right moment.

Condition: the quiet dealbreaker

Condition is unglamorous and decisive. Look closely for:

• Thin, split or worn-through spoon bowls, where the metal has been polished away over generations
• Bent or cracked tines, wobbly handles and old solder repairs
• Deep scratches, dents, and over-polishing that has softened a crisp pattern into a blur
• Monograms: a neat contemporary engraving is broadly neutral, a clumsy later one is a deduction. Armorials with documented family history can genuinely add value to the right buyer
• Mismatched pieces — six of one pattern and five of another is a set of five with a spare

One dent in a serving spoon is not the end of the world. A crack in the stem of a ladle generally is.

Scrap value versus table value

Dealers buy on weight and sell on character. Melt value is a floor rather than a target, and a dealer will typically offer a proportion of it on plain pieces, more on desirable ones. The gap is where the opportunity sits: a set worth a modest sum as metal may fetch two or three times that as cutlery in the right pattern and condition.

As a rough guide, single sterling teaspoons often change hands for a few pounds each; six dessert spoons in a common pattern might make £40 to £90; a Victorian canteen of sixty or more pieces can reach several hundred pounds and comfortably beyond that if the maker and pattern are sought after. Plated sets usually sit under £60.

Using it: why the family set needn't be locked away

If a set is never going to be sold, its real value is on the table. Silver is happiest in use — regular handling slows tarnish and keeps small faults visible before they become large ones. A few practical habits will serve you well:

• Wash by hand in warm water with mild soap and dry straight away. Dishwashers pit silver, loosen knife handles and ruin bone, horn and mother-of-pearl
• Never store with rubber bands or cling film. Acid-free tissue or silver cloth in a dry cupboard is ideal
• Polish lightly and infrequently with a soft cloth and a proper silver polish; aggressive polishing removes metal you cannot put back
• Keep dipping solutions away from mixed-material pieces, which they can stain or pit
• Rotate the set, including the oddments. A spare teaspoon used daily earns its keep

Have anything of substance valued for insurance rather than scrap, and record the hallmarks with a photograph. Then set the table with it. Provenance and pleasure are worth more than a locked drawer ever will be.