The Silver Age Fades as Tastes, Needs Change
Time was, the traditional American bride chose a husband, a honeymoon site, a church, a china pattern and a silver pattern, sometimes in reverse order. Then came “the era of the flower children,” says George Holmes, editor of Jewelers’ Circular-Keystone, a trade magazine, “and formal dining went out”-- along with the other stuff.
Even with today’s return to such traditions, silver--one of America’s oldest crafts--may not make the lineup. Only a fifth of today’s brides buy sterling flatware, compared to almost half a decade ago, says Doris Nixon at the National Bridal Service in Richmond, Va., an organization of 450 jewelry and gift stores. In a recent Modern Bride magazine study, 23% of surveyed readers said they owned four or more place settings, but 81% said their parents did.
Indeed, silver production statistics show that in 1978, 17 million ounces of silver went into sterling tableware, and in 1986, the figure was only 4.1 million. “This is definitely not a growth industry,” sighs an industry official.
For one thing, many prospective customers--young, two-income professional couples--don’t want it. “Silver tarnishes,” says Gail McClellan, a Los Angeles business consultant. “It can’t go in the dishwasher, it has to be stored in that special cloth so it doesn’t tarnish, it’s expensive, it has to be insured and you never use it.” It’s also popular with thieves, unlike china and crystal, which can’t be melted down.
For another, the silverware industry has changed, and with it both the product and its image. “More than any other product, customers respond to the value of the metal,” says Bruce Meyer, president of Geary’s in Beverly Hills. And the value of silver, and of the consumer’s most traditional investment in silver, became confused, if not questionable.
Tarnished Image
Until the 1960s, silver was sold at “better” jewelers and department stores, usually by place setting, often one piece at a time when a bride had “registered” her pattern for gift-givers. By 1970, whole sets were being sold at discount stores, which caused some “erosion,” as they say, in the image of sterling flatware.
It was further eroded in 1980, when the billionaire Hunt brothers of Texas attempted to corner the world silver market, and in the process drove up the price to $50 an ounce from less than $10. Flatware prices had always fluctuated with the price of silver; at that point, a single spoon, incorporating roughly one ounce of silver, went above $100 retail, and some patterns went from $100 to $500 for a four-piece setting. Within months, silver fell to $11 an ounce, and silver was being advertised for 65% to 70% off.
Some think silver’s image suffered irretrievably. When the price of a single teaspoon could be $100, “people said, ‘This is too high for my life style,’ and never went back to take a second look,” says Bob Johnston, spokesman for the now “inactive” Sterling Silversmiths Guild of America. When it subsequently “went on sale for up to 70% off,” says Nixon, “the consumer lost trust in the product.”
Desperate to spur demand, American manufacturers “began gearing down to lower prices,” says Bill Bryan, divisional merchandise manager for Bullock’s stores. In many cases, “if you compared a pattern in 1980 to the same pattern in 1970,” Bryan says, “it was noticeably lighter. Some was so light it almost flew away.”
Many retailers now feature as many patterns of stainless steel flatware as silver, and platters and bowls and tea sets (so-called holloware) emphasize such increasingly popular alloys of miscellaneous metals as “Armetale” and “nambe.” Some steer those customers who still want silver toward European silver, partly because they think it is higher quality (still handcrafted and heavier) than mass-produced American ware, and partly because it’s more expensive, less widely distributed and more profitable for them.
Given such choices of product, where before they only chose a pattern, consumers have to make the same blind judgments of quality that they make with other precious metals and gems. They can ponder craftsmanship and guess at comparative weights. But few laymen can either understand or discern differences in the actual material.
Government standard defines “sterling” as 925/1,000ths (92.5%) silver, with the balance some other metal, usually copper. Sterling tableware is usually marked as such on each piece, but it doesn’t have to be. The law says only that if it is marked sterling, it must be what it says, and it must also bear the manufacturer’s mark so it can be held to the claim.
Silverplate is another matter, but assessing its quality is just as difficult for the consumer. Silverplating is simply a coating of pure silver, usually applied by electroplating. The base metal in holloware is usually brass, copper, pewter, sometimes stainless steel. The base in flatware is more often nickel “because nickel is a white metal and less apt to show through,” says James Lunt, treasurer of Lunt Silversmiths in Greenfield, Mass.
Thickness an Issue
The thickness of the silverplating is up to the manufacturer, but it matters to the user “because flatware is subject to heavy daily utilization,” Lunt says. Bullock’s prefers some lines--usually the European, Bryan says--that have a silver coating more than 30 microns thick (there are 25,400 microns in an inch), but it has handled lines with less than five microns. “We had to send some back,” says Bryan, “because it was so light that it bent.”
Some manufacturers provide warranties with their silverplate, a “guarantee against wear-through,” says Lunt, whose warranty extends over “the life of the original purchaser.” Reed & Barton warrants some of its silverplate for life, some for 100 years.
Ultimately, consumers must “rely on the good name of the manufacturer,” Johnston says. They might also pray that their manufacturer stays in business--the silver business. Some, like Reed & Barton, are diversifying into other products: Its silversmith division is now just half the business, compared to 80% a decade ago. Gorham and Wallace have already been merged into conglomerates, and Towle, which filed for bankruptcy last year, is about to be.
Sadly, today’s purchaser might outlive the tradition.
