Birks silver: sterling or plate?

The 1 word that decides it

Birks is a jeweller's name, and that is what causes the mix-up. A family finds a chest or a tea service with the Birks name on it and assumes it is solid. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it is not, because Birks sold silver plate as well as solid silver and put its name on both.

So look past the name for the word. STERLING, or the number 925, is the mark of solid silver. Canadian marking rules today allow the word sterling only on silver that is at least 925 parts pure in every 1,000, and Birks' own 1911 catalogue described its sterling as "925/1000 fine".

The Birks name does not have to be beside the word, either. The McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal holds a Birks coffee pot engraved with the date 25 December 1906 and stamped STERLING BIRKS underneath. A Birks sugar bowl from the same gift, engraved with the same date, has its mark recorded as STERLING alone. Both carry the word that counts.

The plated side is just as simple. REGENCY PLATE, EPNS, EP and the word plate all mean a silver layer over a base metal, whatever name sits next to them.

Why Birks made both

Henry Birks opened his first shop on Saint James Street in Montreal in 1879. In 1893 he took his 3 sons into partnership and the business became Henry Birks and Sons. In the late 1890s it bought Hendery and Leslie, a firm the National Gallery of Canada's records describe as silversmiths and electro platers, along with its designs, equipment and staff. From then on Birks made both solid silver and plate.

Birks' own 1911 catalogue sold the 2 side by side. Its sterling was "925/1000 fine". Its plated ware came in 2 kinds: a soft-metal range on Britannia metal, and a hard-metal range plated on what the catalogue called "the finest quality of nickel silver". Silver plated onto nickel silver is exactly what the letters EPNS describe, and the catalogue says that ware was made and guaranteed by Birks.

The Regency name came later. Henry Birks & Sons filed Regency as a Canadian trademark in February 1935, for tableware including plated ware, and the federal trademark register gives its first use in Canada as 1 February 1935. The House of Commons collection in Ottawa holds Birks forks and spoons dated 1920 to 1940, all recorded as plated. The record for 1 dessert spoon transcribes its mark, BIRKS REGENCY PLATE CANADA, and gives its metal as electroplated nickel silver.

Birks also grew well beyond Montreal. Between 1902 and 1920 it bought stores and firms across the country, Toronto among them in 1905, and the Dictionary of Canadian Biography records that before the Second World War the company in effect had the Canadian market for gold and silver articles to itself.

What Canadian law does and does not tell you

Canadian law does not require a silver piece to carry a quality mark at all. When a quality word such as sterling is applied, the law requires it to be true and to be accompanied by a trademark or hallmark. The rules for plated flatware list their own words, including silverplate, S.P. and E.P., and allow N.S. for nickel silver when the base metal is at least 10 per cent nickel. E.P. and N.S. together are the letters EPNS.

The practical meaning for a Birks drawer: read the words that are there, and do not read anything into the ones that are not. An unmarked Birks piece is not proof of plate and not proof of silver. It gets tested.

3 things to know before you pack

1. Every piece is tested on its own

You do not have to decide what you have. Every piece is sorted, weighed and tested when it arrives, and each category is paid at its own rate. Solid pieces go under an XRF analyser, which reads the actual metal without touching it, on camera. Guessing wrong at home costs you nothing.

2. Leave the case at home

A fitted case, its lining and its hinges are not metal and are not paid for. If you are posting your silver, that is weight you pay to ship for nothing. Take the pieces out, keep the case.

3. Do not polish it

Polishing lifts a little silver off with the tarnish and makes no difference to what you are paid. Sterling and plate both tarnish black, because both have silver at the surface, so tarnish proves nothing either way. Send it as you found it.

When a Birks piece belongs somewhere else

We buy for metal value only. We melt and shred. We are not an appraiser and we do not give appraisals. A piece can be worth more whole than as metal, such as a signed piece or a complete sterling service, and collectors, dealers and auction houses pay for that. If you think you have one, sell it there first, because once it is broken up for metal that market is gone. Email photos to [email protected] and we will say plainly which it is. That check costs nothing.

3 ways to sell, from anywhere in Ontario

1. Post it. Request a discounted prepaid shipping label, print it and drop the box with our courier. Labels are tracked. They carry no declared value, so if that matters to you, bring solid silver and gold in yourself. The label cost comes off your payment.
2. We collect it. Within about a 2 hour drive of Mississauga, enter your address to see the fee before you book. It comes off your payment.
3. Bring it in. Book a drop-off time at 2687 Slough St, Mississauga. No shipping label and no courier cost.

Whichever route you pick, the rest is the same. Every parcel is opened and documented on continuous video. As part of our anti-money-laundering (FINTRAC) compliance program, we ask every seller for photo ID. Payment is by Interac e-Transfer with an itemized receipt showing every category, weight, rate and dollar. Everything we buy is held intact and unmelted for 30 clear days before it is processed, and anything you want back inside that window goes home by tracked courier at your shipping cost, which we tell you in writing before it ships.