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Greg:

Replacements, Ltd. does not have any Patrician water pitchers in stock, and so there is no pricing posted.

They do, however, have the coffee set (pot, sugar and creamer), for which they are asking $349.95.

I am going to guess around $100-125 for the water pitcher.

By the way, is your Patrician the Community Plate version or the sterling? Patrician was one of the few patterns made in both, so that canny hostesses could do a bit of budget-stretching. You bought sterling for family and small dinner usage, with plate to eke things out for larger dinners and buffets. Everything matched visually, so no one was the wiser if they didn't turn their place setting over. I don't think many people took advantage of this; the sterling version is SUPER rare today. Replacements has one-count-'em-one piece of it.

Joe:

Tarnishproof anything only works for a certain amount of time, then you need to polish. If you will get some 3M silver protector strips to put in that compartment, you'll extend the time between polishings dramatically. Jewelers who carry sterling have them.
 
Launderess:

The 1975 Patrician pattern is not the same one Greg has, which dates from 1914.

Oneida recycled pattern names many times over the years. Patrician has been used on two patterns of plate, one of sterling and a stainless version of the 1975 plate pattern.
 
" tarnish-proof cover"

If only! *LOL*

Have chests lined with such stuff, bags, and other containers meant for sterling and to a one sooner or later you will need to polish or things tarnish. If you use your sterling often the cleaning and drying before returning to storage probably made it seem as if tarnish had been held at bay.

Speaking of second hand castaways and sterling silver years ago a local thrift got a totally NOS Baker dining room set. Table, chairs side table complete with drawers fitted with tarnish proof protection for one's sterling flatware and hostess/serving pieces. Turns out a Park or Fifth Avenue home ordered it and when it arrived Madame didn't like so had her decorator dispose. As one entered the shop there was a buzz around the set but it hadn't been priced nor would it be until the next morning. Found out a few weeks later one of the Latino/Hispanic maids or some such that works in the area was standing outside the next morning waiting for the doors to open She paid very little for the entire set compared to what Baker sells for in stores and had her husband/brothers shift the entire set into a van at once for the trip home.
 
Mine is community plate and I had always thought it was from roughly 1914. That's the year my grandparents married, so it must have been a wedding gift from a relative. Over the years, my very talented seamstress grandmother made bags for each place setting. I have them stored away. I guess using silver plate or sterling goes along with ironed sheets, ironed kitchen towels, and a new damask napkin everynight. I do, I do!
 
I have two sets of stainless I bought at Walmart 10 or so years ago and they have held up just fine. I also have 4 place settings of Oneida Act II that I got from my mom, the matte finish seems to be prone to scratching.

For sterling, I have 10 place settings plus several serving pieces of Wallace Grande Baroque. I bought it on ebay in 2008 when the economy tanked for about half or less than what it is bringing now. I goes well with my china and Hofbaur Red Bird crystal.

58limited-2014070900354003538_1.jpg
 
Launderess,

I am one of those who use the sterling for special occasions and not daily. But, I do use the cream soup spoons whenever I make gumbo, bisque, and cream soups. I don't have any stainless versions so I use the sterling. This type of spoon is so much nicer than a regular spoon for eating heavier soups and gumbos.
 
... this site is going to make me go broke...

I've found several patterns between suggestions from here and random results on ebay that I want...

I just bought 59 pieces of twin star. Grandma has Twin star and Isabella. I've got another set in the works to fill in the missing pieces on the set I just won.

I wonder how many settings a single male needs? :-D

I might need a whole separate dishwasher just for the flatware I've found.

I'm ok with starting with the vintage stainless to get rid of the crap I have.. I still plan on getting silver as soon as I can find a decent price. I just need to find out more information about purchasing the sterling.

What single man doesn't deserve sterling flatware to eat ramen noodles with?[this post was last edited: 7/9/2014-21:12]
 
Try this

If you want to take the time, go to Replacements.com I have done this and have added to my sterling pattern; Williamsburg from 1906 by Towle. My everyday plate is my grandmother's from 1936 and is Meadowbrook by Oneida. Have fun with this. I don't put any of my silver in the dishwasher and don't let any silver touch stainless steel or it will leave black marks. Have fun. Gary
 
Joshua:

Here are some quantity tips I used to pass on to cooking students back when I taught, which was about a bazillion years ago:

- Determine how many you would seat for a "company dinner." Obviously, you need one place setting for each person.

- Add a 25% overrun to that. If you want to seat six, have eight place settings. This takes care of things like when someone drops a fork, and also takes care of those times when a piece or two is "out of commission," say, when you've mistakenly fed a dinner fork to the Disposall and haven't repaired or replaced it yet.

- Serving pieces are up to you, but you can never have too many, and I strongly urge you to have more than one of everything. If someone drops the butter knife, it's great to be able to calmly go to the sideboard or the drawer and pull out another one. It's a lot less graceful to have to stop and wash it in front of God and everybody.

- Minimum suggested serving pieces (if you don't want to get two of everything as I suggested above) would be:

1- Two solid (unpierced) serving spoons.
2- One pierced serving spoon (for juicy vegetables like green beans).
3- One sugar spoon.
4- One butter knife.
5- One gravy ladle.
6- One pastry server.
7- One cold meat fork.

This is minimum - I have considerably more (for instance, four serving spoons, four pierced spoons and four cold meat forks, plus two each of the other items listed).

Also, the standard manufacturers' idea of a place setting is preposterous. They want you to get by on a dinner knife, a dinner fork, a dessert spoon (usually and erroneously called a tablespoon or perhaps an "oval soup spoon"), and a teaspoon or two. Bushwah.

What I consider minimal is:

1- Dinner knife
2- Dinner fork
3- Salad fork
4- TWO dessert spoons (one for dessert and one for soup if no round-bowled soup spoons are available in your pattern) OR -
5- One dessert spoon and one round-bowled soup spoon
6- Teaspoon. I know many people use a teaspoon for dessert, but the larger spoon is the correct one.

To this you can add if you like (I like):

1- Iced tea spoon
2- Individual butter knife (usually termed a "spreader")
3- Cocktail/seafood fork
4- Extra dinner knife (for first courses)
5- Extra dinner fork (for first courses)
6- Demitasse spoons

After that, the sky's the limit - fish forks, fish knives, bouillon spoons, marrow spoons, asparagus tongs, snail forks and tongs, salt spoons, you name it.

For a purchasing plan, I would suggest four basic place settings first (for your use and some entertaining), plus serving pieces. You can add more places as funds permit. This is especially important with sterling - you will have several thousand dollars tied up in the stuff before you know it. Stainless is much easier on the wallet, of course.

Last tip: The more ornate a pattern is, the less it shows scratches. The plainer it is, the easier it is to polish. You pay your money and you take your choice.
 
Typically, the way I have my kitchen setup, I have my stainless in jars separated by what the piece is. It sounds tacky, but they are all sitting on the counter against the backsplash within grasp while I'm cooking or trying to plate. The servingware is in the drawer until called to duty, but I've learned catering and cooking commercially one can NEVER have enough tasting utensils within reach. That and I don't have enough drawers to store my flatware and all my other kitchen utensils. The flatware looks pretty sitting in mason jars reflecting the cabinet lighting above.

I edited my post above since I won my Twin Star set. I'll expand on that set, and I am glad that I was able to win that pattern. To me it is very simple and elegant.

That being said, if I can find a sterling pattern I like, I want something forged that is very simple -- plain. Clean lines, not a lot of increased surface area. Repousse is very pretty, but not for me.. It is very over the top. Is there a sterling pattern somewhat like Towle's Luxor? Something very sturdy and very smooth.

I plan on purchasing Mikasa Platinum Matrix before this time next year. Unless I can find a pattern that is similar for a cheaper price.

On the polishing tip.. If the flatware is smooth and polished regularly, the scratches won't be that noticable will they? I mean I don't plan on running my flatware through the ice crusher..
 
Sandy, I'm so glad you put in a word about the dessert spoon. I think those are one of the greatest additions to the civilized world, and yet they are so rarely understood in the USA. Europeans I've met through the years seem to be more familiar with them.

Very recently, I was at dinner with family and friends, and dessert was served properly with dessert fork and spoon. One friend was puzzled, which really surprised me, since she is usually very aware of these things. Once I showed her how the spoon did double duty as a knife for the pastry and a spoon for the cream, she was ecstatic. She wanted to order another dessert just to try out the new setup a second time.

Of course, to work properly, the fork has to be maneuvered in the European way, in the left hand. That throws some people, but not the eccentrics I know.

The other thing that a lot of people seem to resist is the use of the giant Tablespoon (aka the serving spoon) for clear soup in a soup plate. I love to serve clear soup just to trot out that setup. I always get dirty looks from the family when I do it. They know it's "correct", but they somehow don't seem to like it. [this post was last edited: 7/10/2014-00:15]
 
Sterling Pattern Suggestion:

If you're looking for something easy to polish, simple and handsome, here's an idea:

John and Priscilla by Westmorland Sterling. Westmorland was a direct-sales (door-to-door) sterling company owned by Wear-Ever. The "Westmorland Man" was a familiar visitor to homes in the 1950s; one of my relatives bought a piece or two a month until she amassed a full service. Since Wear-Ever was a cookware company, they didn't have the facilities to manufacture the sterling themselves; Wallace Silversmiths did the actual manufacturing. This ensured that the sterling was of top quality; Wallace is as fine a silver company as there is.

John and Priscilla has one huge advantage over many sterling patterns: It's low-key handsome, suitable for a man to own. There are other patterns that answer that description, but some of them, like Tiffany & Co.'s Century, cost a bleedin' fortune. John and Priscilla is reasonably priced for sterling.

When Wear-Ever decided to exit the sterling business in the '60s, Wallace took Westmorland on as one of their brands; they still make the five Westmorland patterns (John and Priscilla, Enchanting Orchid, Milburn Rose, George and Martha Washington and Lady Hilton) today.

If you're searching for it, the company is spelled W-E-S-T-M-O-R-L-A-N-D, not W-E-S-T-M-O-R-E-L-A-N-D.

Here's a photo of John and Priscilla:[this post was last edited: 7/10/2014-05:29]

danemodsandy++7-10-2014-05-05-27.jpg
 
P.S.: Repoussé

Kirk's Repoussé that you mentioned, Joshua, is the oldest American sterling pattern in continuous production, dating back to 1837. It is an "old-money" pattern, seen in homes where the silver has been around for so many generations no one knows who actually bought it.

Whenever I re-read Gone With the Wind, my mind's eye always sees Repoussé as the O'Hara family silver that Mammy and Pork hide in the well when the Yankees come through Clayton County and loot Tara.

danemodsandy++7-10-2014-05-58-15.jpg
 
And a Correction!

In my post above about suggested place settings, I omitted a very important piece!

You also need a second "salad" fork (also referred to simply as a "small fork"), for desserts.

So, the list should read:

1- Dinner knife
2- Dinner fork
3- TWO salad forks (one for salad and one to go with the dessert spoon)
4- TWO dessert spoons (one for dessert and one for soup if no round-bowled soup spoons are available in your pattern) OR -
5- One dessert spoon and one round-bowled soup spoon
6- Teaspoon. I know many people use a teaspoon for dessert, but the larger spoon is the correct one.

If I get time tonight, I'll try to photograph a place of my Queen Bess so that you can see all these eatin' irons.
 
I'm sitting here waiting for my Flight to Denver so I can go to St. Louis because I got invited for a Riccar/Simplicity Factory tour and I just purchased another 48 pieces of Twin Star. I've got 107 pieces coming now.. and I am still trying to find one more set to make a "complete" set... Oye! LOL I guess I won't have to worry about having empty jars!!

I was washing up the current stainless, after I fed my cats before I left and noticed I was wrong about what I had being Oneida, I guess the set I am having the splitting / cracking issues with this time is Cambridge...

I don't get why these companies make crap that falls apart with normal use.. I know its about the bottom line but still .. it makes me long for days where people cared about their products.

One company I know, today, that still cares for their products and their customers is Tacony and I am proud I sell Riccar Vacuums!! (I suppose I should add cutco to that list as well, they go the extra mile to make sure their flatware/cutlery is taken care of too!!)
 
I finally got around to cleaning up the Twin Star I purchased.

I'm running them on a spread out rack first then I'm gonna put them in my baskets.. I wanna make sure the residue from the polish is off...

jkbff-2014072701055808854_1.jpg
 

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