GUEST: About five years ago, my sister and I inherited this from a friend. And what she told us about it was that her stepfather's parents had had this made as a wedding gift to his bride, his father to his bride. And the shells represent the seashore, where they had met and spent a lot of time. A couple of years ago I took three pieces in to an appraiser not too far from our home. And he looked at it and said, "Oh, this is nothing." And that was the last we did, and we use it all the time and enjoy it.
APPRAISER: Do you use it every day?
GUEST: Not every day, no, but for special occasions.
APPRAISER: A big party, Thanksgiving, I would think. It's French, probably made in Paris. It actually has the maker's mark and an export mark dated 1879. You can see it's just got everything you could possibly want in a silver service. You have a complete table setting with dinner forks, lunch forks, salad forks, dinner knives, soup spoons, teaspoons, demitasse spoons. Here we have a nice ladle. This is, I believe, a berry spoon for serving berries.
GUEST: Oh, is that what that is?
APPRAISER: With the gilt wash on the bowl, which is really quite lovely. You have several pieces with gilt wash. Here we have a little silver salt, also with a gilt wash inside with a glass liner. And the matching spoon, also with a little shell pattern. It's really quite exquisite. I counted slightly over 200 pieces altogether. And I would say, it could easily bring $10,000 to $12,000 at auction.
GUEST: $10,000 to $12,000? Wow. I was thinking maybe a couple hundred.
APPRAISER: (laughing)
GUEST: (laughing) Good grief.
