Silver Miniatures – Daryle Lambert's Antiques and Collectibles Blog – Small Can Be Good.

 Silver Miniature - Thanks to aardewerk.com

My interest in metals, both gold and silver, is fairly well documented. I think that they are overpriced and anyone investing in them at current levels will be burned. However, because they are very malleable metals, artists can create wonderful things from them. Perhaps the greatest of the silver items are the miniatures because of the skills it take to produce them.

Like so many other items, the miniatures were often produced for the royalty and they were displayed throughout the house. These pieces were too valuable for the children to play with and were made just for show. Much later miniatures were introduced for children and as decorations for doll houses. Even then, the silver and gold miniatures were only for the wealthy because they were the only ones that could afford them.

I have admired the silver miniatures for quite some time but have never acquired any of them until now. The Evansville auction at Sohn's gave me the opportunity to purchase several of these miniatures and I just bought them all. You can see many of them in the Daryle Lambert's Antiques and Collectibles Marketplace. I have to tell you I fell in love with little gems like the Cinderella coach and the Boxer dog. I knew I liked them but wasn't sure of their value until I returned home and found that even at the prices I listed them for, they were far below what others were asking. It seems that the pieces that are most sought after come from England or other European countries. You can often find these little miniatures for as little as $25 - $50. These miniatures take up just a very small space so you can have a lot of them in your collection before the husband or wife starts to complain.

While you are on the hunt, please take the time to look at the little fellows with the sterling marks. You will need your jeweler’s loupe to read the marks. They will often be marked 925 or 800 which aren't American marks. Two good resources are International Hallmarks on Silver: Collected by Tardy and Jackson's Silver and Gold Marks of England, Scotland & Ireland by Ian Pickford.

Here are three current miniature listings: Sterling Silver Lazy Susan Antique Miniature $2750, Meyers Hand Wrought Sterling Silver Miniature Tea Set $1500 and a Russian Antique Sterling Silver Miniature Violin $975. I might not even pay that for the real things, just kidding! But I do think you get the idea. Being small doesn't mean the item doesn't have much value.

Vickie, my wife, will go a long way but I doubt she will let me bring a doll house home and start furnishing it. I don't think my son Joshua would appreciate it much either. I hope this doesn't make me an odd ball but they sure appeal to me. 

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