1. Tarnish = real silver in at least some small amount
2. Platters are useful for organizing things
3. They had cool designs, and were all different
4. One of them had a Tiffany hallmark on the back, always worth a second look
I put them in my bag, and clanging down the road we went, back home to the interwebs for research!
Antiques Roadshow has taught me to always look on the bottom for a hallmark or maker's mark, here is what I saw.
As it turns out, they were all silver plate, although Tiffany calls this "silver-soldered" (way to be clever with the re-branding there T&Co). I would like to thank 'Silver Jim' (of the blog Silver Chatter) who answered my email inquiry about silver hallmarks even though I was a total stranger and had nothing to buy or sell. The website Online Encyclopedia of Silver Marks was also informative in decoding these marks.
Silver-plate or silver-solder means some less precious base metal has been thinly coated with silver, and sometimes a design has been etched in. Due to the small amount of real silver involved there is no real monetary value to any of the platters, not even to melt down. Knowing this was a relief, because it meant I could experiment with them and not feel like I was ruining some precious future heirloom. It was fun investigating these little mysteries while learning a bit about the convoluted history of metalwork firms in the Northeast.
Next posting will have some before & after pictures, stay tuned!