Customer Reviews

American Sterling Silver Flatware 1830s-1990s: An Identification and Value Guide

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The 1880s to 1990s American Sterling Silver Flatware is a reference guide to 23 of the major American Sterling Silver Flatware makers and their production. It provides an overview of the patterns and the individual pieces produced in this 100 or so years time frame. For someone who loves silver it is lovely to look at. Some of the images are, just as they are on the front cover; beautifully photographed images. Others seem to be poor quality computer scanned images that produce, in many cases, barely acceptable illustrations or examples of the pattern.
If you know the name of the company you will be able to find the name of the pattern, the date of issue and an approximate price for four components. Not necessarily the basic four components of a place setting, as I understand it to be, i.e. a Dinner Knife, Dinner Fork, Dessert/Salad Fork and Tea Spoon. One also has access to a list of pieces that were originally produced. Here again, the guide could offer so much more. It does not provide insight into the difference between a Master Butter Knife and a Butter Knife nor does it include the measurements of different pieces, which I would have found invaluable. It is very useful to know that a Place fork or Luncheon Fork might be slightly less than 7 inches in length and that a Dinner Fork may be 7 ½ inches. And just what does an Orange Knife look like, or Strawberry Spoon an as compared to an Almond Spoon. More importantly, how does a Five Oclock Spoon differ from the more Basic Tea Spoon and those, which are mentioned as Full Size Trade Tea Spoon, Full Size Regular Tea Spoon, Full Size Heavy Tea Spoon, or Full Size Massive Tea Spoon. Again, the weight of different items would have been useful. While this book is a very valuable guide to American Silver Pattern, which does have a place in a collectors basic library, I feel it falls short of its possibilities as an Identification and Value guide.

I was simply much too impatient for quick and easy answers the last time I wrote a review for this book, and I am a bit ashamed of myself for having been so negative and hypercritical. After much more time and education on the subject of American Sterling flatware, I realized that Ms. Dolan's approach is actually rather pragmatic and useful (organized alphabetically, by manufacturer, with hallmarks being displayed before each section). I would have appreciated an entire section devoted solely to identifying hallmarks, a wider range of American manufacturers, and an index, but this book has indeed proven useful for me, regardless (even though I am only able to reference between 50 to 60% of the patterns in any given pile of mixed antique American Sterling flatware, using solely this book - but still). Though by no means a complete reference in itself, Ms. Dolan's book should indeed be included in any collection of American Sterling flatware reference material, and seems to fill some of the gaps in other existing reference guides.

As a collector, I have some sterling flatware purchased for daily use. However, I was unable to find one pattern in this book that matched the 50+ pieces I have. The photos and drawerings, however, are clear and detailed. Hopefully, someday I will be able to match a piece with the book!

I purchased this book with the hope it would assist me in identifying the names of four patterns of silver (all of them pieces I had inherited.) I knew the manufacturers of each piece and knew the approximate date of manufacture (ranging from 1895 to 1956); this book could only give me the names of two of them. Although Maryanne Dolan gives a lot of background about the great American silver companies and their histories, there is no index to refer to; I had to read through each company's "biography" to learn (finally!) that Wm. Rogers was brought by International Sterling.

For a silver enthusiast who is interested in researching many different patterns, this wouldn't be my first choice as a reference. Overall, though, it was informative.

This book purports to be for the identification and value of American silver flatware. It is woefully incomplete. Where is Tiffany & Co.? Where are all the patterns that I would like to identify? Why is the layout so reader-unfriendly? And who cares that "Baltimore City lies 200 miles from the Atlantic Ocean..."?

I bought this book along with Sterling Flatware by Tere Hagan. I find it difficult to use and poorly organized. She has a lot of information on certian patterns and makers but little on others. There is no index and information is incomplete. I use it as a back up to Hagan's book as she sometimes will have a pattern that Hagen dosen't have. Neither book is complete and this book has some information and a couple of Manufactures that Hagan dosen't cover still both books are valuable but even together not complete. I still have quite a few unknowns in my collection.

This book fills the niche between Tere Hagan's pattern identification book "Sterling Flatware" and Richard Osterberg's piece identification book "Sterling Silver Flatware. Mrs. Dolan's focus is on giving lists of pieces that were available in certain patterns. This is a great help for those trying to complete older sets or modern sets that have dropped pieces from their present production.

Dolan has compiled almost complete listings with pictures or drawings of the patterns that are very intricate and easy to follow. Even more interesting are the articles that preclude the individual sections giving overviews of the histories of the companies profiled. It does not list every single pattern from every single company listed, but comes close. Overall a very good book for flatware collectors and enthusiasts