Silver plated silver Persian salt cellars

[JanGroen]

Good day

I found these on the market today. I first thought they were cheap plated Indian brass as the plating was bubbling and showing green. I found it too ugly and started sanding it off with fine sandpaper. I thought I would find brass but instead it had silver beneath the plating. Is it common to plate silver?
I think it is Persian silver salts. They don't have hallmarks but scratch out numbers on the base. They are a matching pair. It has a lion, dog and antelope engraved on the sides.
Groete
Jannie

[MGArgent]

Hi Jannie,

I interpreted one of your questions to ask if it is common to silver-plate over top of solid silver (as opposed to silver-plating on top of a silver coloured base metal).

I can share the case of an Indonesian Yogya/Djogja spoon I have which was made from low-grade (~40%) silver and was then silver-plated.

The silver-plating has been removed on the back of the bowl and you can see a distinct orange tinge which I assume can be attributed to the high copper content of the silver alloy.

In addition to the light orange tinge, the underlying alloy appears to be non-homogenous as there are scattered patches of a deeper copper colour. One possible explanation for this could be that some of the copper never fully melted and mixed in with the alloy as it has a slightly higher melting point than silver.

I was surprised when the XRF result aligned with the marks and showed just over 40% silver content, and it seems in the case of this spoon that is was silver-plated in order to cover up the orange-tinge and mottled surface.









Besides this spoon, I also have a silver bowl from India which I suspect may be silver-plated on top of an 80%-90% silver alloy.

As you mentioned the inside of your cellar has been sanded, you could consider applying an acid test to the inside of the bowl to confirm they are silver and then remove the stain with additional sanding.

[amena]

It also happened to me, in Laos, to buy an object that the seller said was silver, and which after a few years has turned pink. There is actually some silver in the alloy, so the seller didn't lie, strictly speaking, but I think the silvering was done to deceive.
An old silversmith told me one day that it was common to silver plating objects in 800/1000 alloy to give them more luster, but I have no evidence of this.
Does anyone know if it is actually a commonly used processing step?