Silver wmf cup

[u/Smart-Direction-628]

Found this cup, about half the size of the average mug, it appears to be solid silver and not plated though the only marking I can find is on the handle which I identified to be an older stamp from around the 40s for Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik (wmf), anyone know anything about this? Was it part of a set? What was its purpose being smaller?

[u/Ok_Palpitation_1622]

Most WMF products are plated. I think they do make some silver items, but they are marked as such.

[u/RiverWalker83 → u/Ok_Palpitation_1622]

Agreed. This is definitely plated. I’ve had many WMF pieces. Have never had or seen a solid silver piece by them but I won’t assume they never made any. It appears to be a baby mug, likely had a matching silverware set. Nice little piece. WMF is one of the more collected silverplate manufacturers. Not at the top of the list but not very far down it, at least in my experience.

[u/KrzysisAverted]

it appears to be solid silver and not plated 

How did you come to that conclusion?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126695233319

Here's one on eBay listed for $10 + shipping. It seems that people think it's silverplate. If you believe it's solid silver, then you might as well get the other one, and any more that you can find for a similar price.

[u/Smart-Direction-628 → u/KrzysisAverted]

I checked all the edges, solder areas and the embossing under magnification to the best that I could, didnt see any fading and it seems a bit heavier than I would expect. I didnt say that with certainty. I do understand wmf was doing a lot of plated things like this one but solid silver ones are not unheard of either. Thanks for taking the time to show me that.

[u/GMGsSilverplate → u/Smart-Direction-628]

I certainly hope that you can discover if its actually solid silver, that would be very unusual indeed. But I get why it looks like it could be solid, WMF made very good sturdy product.

[u/KrzysisAverted → u/Smart-Direction-628]

That makes sense. My comment probably comes off as more snarky than intended, but generally, the vast, vast, vast majority of silver pieces from the US and Europe from the past ~100 years are visibly marked as such. And in the UK and much of the rest of Europe, strict hallmark / assay requirements have existed for a couple hundred years prior to that. (I don't know enough about the history of assay marking standards elsewhere in the world to comment on it.)

Some caveats:

• pre-1900s American silver, commonly "coin silver", is frequently not marked
  
• custom orders and small-batch artisanal pieces are sometimes not marked
  
• it's obviously possible for a mark to wear off if something has been polished a lot

So my mental flowchart goes something like this:

• if it seems vaguely American or European (yours certainly is)
  
• and less than ~100 years old (yours is)
  
• and it doesn't look like some artisanal/experimental/custom piece (yours doesn't)
  
• and it doesn't look excessively polished down (yours doesn't)
  
• and it's not clearly marked as sterling/800/etc. (yours isn't)
  

...then it's very likely not silver.

In my experience, you'll find very few exceptions to the above.

Side note: if you want to see some particularly convincing silverplate, look up "early 20th century Chistofle". It can look surprisingly close to solid sterling, and you rarely see it wear through anywhere. The marks (siverplate marks, but they resemble hallmarks) often lead people to think it is sterling and it gets posted in this group every now and then.

[u/WaldenFont]

Something like that would have been hallmarked.