Large Sterling Birk's Of Canada Footed Tea - Coffee Service Tray

Silver : Vintage : American

 

This all sterling tray is just beautiful & in super condition. Birks of Canada is an extremely old & prestigious company. It was founded in 1879 & is considered by most to be the Tiffany of Canada. They are still in business today but primarily produce jewelry. The company is still so well regarded that it has been contracted to be the manufacturer of the official 2010 Canadian Olympics souvenir jewelry. The tray has no rips, chomps, dents, deep scratches or repairs. I have to apologize for my photos. Large sterling trays turn out to be very hard to photograph well. So after lots & lots of photos I kept the best. The exterior rim is comprised of five slightly graduated in size ribs. Decorating the ribs are a total of four leaves & four X like ribbon designs. The leaves (photos # 5 & 6), ribs & X's (photo # 7) are all well defined with excellent curves & dimension. The interior has a stunning circular floral design (photos # 2 & 3) that is approx 4" wide leaving the center area for presentation (photo # 9A). There is also an approx 3/8" narrow pattern (photo # 7B) at the flat bottom interior rim where the inside of the tray starts to slope upwards to the exterior edge. The handles are decorated with corresponding half leaves & ribs. The underside of the tray has four approx. 1 1/8" half ball feet as well as the marks (photo # 8). The tray has less then expected surface scratching. I feel the tray had a very, very light professional buffing on it's areas of un-patterned silver. This feeling is due to the lighter definition of some of the pattern work edges as evident in photos 9B & 9C. & one light 3" long loss of some of that interior rim pattern partially evident in photo # 7C. If the tray was touched up by buffing it was done extremely well as I see no bumps nor do I feel any when rubbing the tray with my fingers. The patina of the old silver was not harmed. Unless you really inspect the tray as we do you don't see the fainter pattern edge areas. You can on inspection find the occasional, normal faint surface scratch or pesky approx 1/32" shallow indentation that all old silver seems to acquire. On the underside of the tray you can find some occasional tiny spots or lines of surface scratching. There is one scratch spot approx 1 3/4" long & ranging from 1/8" to 1/2" tall that I feel might have been done to cover over a name for a previous owner. In approx.1925 Birks applied to the London assay office & was granted the right to use London's date marking system. As you can see from photo # 8 the marks are: Birks, Lion. London date letter for 1927, a Beaver & Sterling. I am sorry we do not know what the Beaver stands for but it is not part of the standard Birks signature. The tray measures approx 29" long from the outer rims of handle to handle & is approx. 18 1/8 wide. It's interior oval flat area measures approx. 21" long x 15" wide. The outer rim stands above my table by approx 1 5/8" & the handle stands approx. 2 1/2". There is no presentation anywhere on the tray. It is not one of those thin, low quality trays. It has great density without being overly heavy. It weighs approx 9 pounds 7 ozs = 137.6 troy ozs. If you've always wanted a sterling tray for your service this is a must buy. If you go to a store that can special order a sterling tray of this size & weight you will find that you will be spending thousands more for one not as pretty. Remember we do have layaway for our customers.The design elements of this tray are an amazing match to our Gorham set (item #561) and all 6 pcs of that set will display on the tray with room to spare. This was a real surprise as they were made by 2 different companies in two different countries and 40 years apart. Sometimes serendipity happens.

Item ID: 585

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