SILVER PLATED SPOONS
Many of the people who went to the Chicago World Fair of 1893 wanted to buy a souvenir.Sterling spoons were relatively expensive souvenirs
so some manufacturers created much cheaper souvenir spoons out of silver plate.
When these were brand new it was often difficult for a lay person to perceive the quality difference
and some of the spoon manufacturers capitalized on this fact.
Silver plated spoons are MUCH less valued than the sterling spoons you have seen in the other exhibits on the Columbian World Fair
These spoons are available for sale.
This set of demi spoons imitated their more expensive cousins.
Each of the spoons depicts a different fair building in the bowl
These spoons are more valuable only because they are a complete set
incomplete set of Columbian world fair demi spoons
The ferris wheel is a nice one.
spoons representing other potential sets of demi spoons (I have no information of the size of these other sets, but my guess would be 6)
The one of the left was probably gold plated --but the plating has deteriorated over the last century.
These three full sized spoons could easily masquerade as the better quality sterling spoon.
From the picture it is impossible to know that they are not sterling (and I made that error)
The middle one technically should not be in this exhibit as it is a souvenir of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (1897)
it even says "sterl.sil.co". This was a deliberate attempt to fool people.
The back even features a beaver which suggests that it was aimed at Canadian tourists.
The 'neat' thing about this is that it is a complete set of six full sized tea spoons from the world fair.
I doubt that too many sets of these exist.
This set is available for sale
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