Vases have historic value

Dear Helaine and Joe: I am looking for information on Meriden silver plate. I have a pair of vases with metal bases that are marked with a circle, inside of which is a representation of a scale and "Meriden B Company." Overall, the vases are 10 3/4 inches tall and in excellent condition. Any information would be helpful.

Thank you. — D.A., Croton-On-Hudson, N.Y.

Dear D.A.: Meriden, Conn., is sometimes called "The Silver City of the World" — or, more modestly, "Connecticut's Silver City." This is because Meriden was once an important center for the production of American metal wares and many items made from silver or silver plate — as well as from other metals such as iron, pewter and Britannia — were produced there.

The "B" in the mark that is mentioned in the letter stands for "Britannia," and this logo with the representation of the scales in the center was used by the Meriden Britannia Company, which was founded in 1852. As might be suspected from the name, the Meriden Britannia Co. initially made hollowware from Britannia metal but later crafted items from white metal, sterling silver and nickel silver, and did extensive silver plating.

Britannia is a type of metal that originated around 1769, when it was called "Vicker's White Metal." Typically, Britannia is an alloy composed of 93 parts tin, five parts antimony and two parts copper. Sometimes, zinc and bismuth were added.

Britannia is a pewterlike metal that has a silvery-white surface and was extensively used as a base metal for silver plating. It was cheaper to use for this purpose than nickel silver but less durable.

The initials "EPBM" that are sometimes encountered on silver-plated objects stand for "electroplated Britannia metal," while the more familiar "EPNS" stands for "electroplated nickel silver."

Today, one of the most visible uses of Britannia metal is in the Oscar statuettes handed out each year by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Under all that gold, silver, copper and nickel plating, there is ordinary Britannia metal.

For the pair of vases in today's question, all the Meriden Britannia Co. did was make the wonderful silver-plated mountings with the neoclassical caryatids that are in the Victorian Renaissance Revival substyle. This means that this pair of elegant mantel vases is probably circa 1870.