This Time the Silver Saved Me!

As many of you know, my daughter, Andrea, and I are on a mission to save as many pieces of old sterling that we can, so they will not be melted. In this blog, the situation was reversed and the silver actually saved me.

When Andrea suggested that we use her Myott Indian Tree china for our next “Times Three” blog, I thought it was a wonderful idea. There are so many colors in the pattern and I foolishly thought it would be easy to create a beautiful table. How wrong I was!!

The more I looked at the pattern the only color that I could see was gray. What to do about that? I decided to go with the gray color scheme and started looking for gray placemats. I did find some that did not look very nice, but finally found some Ralph Lauren ones at Macy’s. They were charcoal, but I thought they would work.

Wrong, again. I tried the placemats with the china, but they looked too dark. I added a red plate, but that did not help.

I put everything together and I still did not like the results.

I finally decided to scrap that plan and start anew. I have pinkish red plates, which looked good with the rosy color in the plate.

The only probably was that my red place mats are very red.

What could I do? Aha, I turned the placemats over and they were darker on the other side and looked fine with the two plates!

Then I started thinking about what I could use to bring out the gray in the plates. Nothing! I had nothing to use. Whoa, wait a minute – silver is gray – yes, silver is gray! Then, I decided to use lots of silver on the table.

I first put the red dinner plate on a silver leaf charger plate and then added the Myott salad plate.

I, also, used Myott bread plates.

The white napkin – always a classic.

I used "Argenta" iced tea glasses by Tiffin. They are named perfectly for my silver table and they have a platinum rim.

I found my sterling silver “Jamestown” Reed and Barton water goblets, but I have only two of those.

Thankfully, my mother had given me four silverplate goblets, so I ended up with six for my tablescape – perfect!

I used my grand-mother’s silverplate flatware, including the master butter knife. I do not have individual butter paddles in that pattern.

Then, I pulled out my sterling silver matching bowls. They were my mother’s originally and she intended to give one to my sister and one to me. My sister did not want hers! Today, I am thanking her, again, because I needed two for this table.

The centerpiece of the table is a recent find at Scott’s Antiques. It is a cut glass covered bowl with a silver overlay on the lid.

The sauce boat with the black handle is a fun piece that I bought at a store like Tuesday Morning or TJ Maxx.

The cute salt and pepper shakers were one of my gifts from my husband at Christmas several years ago. I had seen them in a local store and they really caught my eye. The shape is so unique! Anyway, my daughter gave my husband the hint and here they are on my table. They were made by Miller Rogaska.

The divided glass dish was part of a relish set that my husband and I received as a wedding gift. The relish spoon and pickle fork came with the dish and are the “Reflection” silverplate pattern by 1847 Rogers.

It is fitting that I should end with a great story about the gorgeous sterling butter dish cover, since I am using my daughter’s china today. She gave me this piece as a gift, because she thought the pattern on it was “Strasbourg” by Gorham, which matches my main sterling flatware. I think the person from whom she bought it told her that it was “Strasbourg”. Several years later, we discovered that it is actually “Francis I” by Reed and Barton, which is my granddaughter Emma’s sterling pattern. I guess we know who will inherit this piece!!

As usual, something good happened with this blog, even though it got off to a rocky start. I was able to display some of my silver pieces and remember how I acquired them. That is one of the things about this blog that I love. When I am forced to sit down and write about the tablescapes, I inevitably access memories about my collections and the family members and friends who are connected with them – they always bring a smile!

Diane