Description

The shipping costs for the 50 states and Puerto Rico are included in the listed price of this item. For any other destination, please email for a shipping quote BEFORE bidding. I ship only by USPS Priority Mail & Express Mail, no exceptions. I NEVER ship silver in envelopes. I neither solicit nor accept offers. Listed items will not be marked down during the listing duration. Reed and Barton introduced Rex in 1894 and continued to offer this pattern for about 20 years. The design is one of French elegance in a restrained sculptural style. The terms dinner and luncheon as applied to silverware cause some confusion. They refer to different sizes of flatware, specifically knives and forks. The dinner is the larger of the two; the luncheon is about three fourths the size of the dinner. The reason for these differences could be that when water had to be pumped by hand, and wood chopped to heat the water, then dish washing only happened once a day. Thus the household needed two distinct sets of flatware. Forks only came into common use in the 1840s, and the idea of having two forks per person was one of great luxury. The dinner knife is something that we take for granted as part of the table silver. Yet the dinner knife became a standard item only in the 1890s, and there are patterns made right before WWI that did not have matching knives. The reasons for this seem to number three: one, people frequently carried knives with them, so there was little need for a separate knife; two, and this seems most plausible, everything was cooked to death, and had fallen apart by the time dinner was served, so there was no real need to cut anything with more than a fork; three, the technology of the time could not produce a knife that would simultaneously look like silver, keep an edge, and not wear terribly. Those knives that survive tend to be towards the end of the Victorian period. They typically have a silverplated blade, usually in the blunt form, and a patterned handle, like the ones offered here. The dinner forks and hollow handle dinner knives with plated blades offered here measure respectively about 7 3/4” and about 9 3/4". These are not pieces of new silver. They show the patina of as much as 125 yeas of careful use. There are the light scratches which constitute normal patina. There is no monogram. Silver is softly lustrous. 9 of the forks have dots of rest wear on the bottoms of the backs of the tines. One knife blade has a tiny bubble on the plating. The pattern is crisp and clear. These forks and knives come in a flannel wrapper which helps prevent tarnish. I polish all silver before listing on eBay. Please email with any questions before bidding. PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE AUCTION DESCRIPTION CAREFULLY. BY BIDDING YOU AGREE TO ABIDE BY MY TERMS OF SALE including the cost and method of shipping and my return policy. I welcome international bidders, but remember that shipping charges can be high. Ask before you bid. Winning bidder to pay shipping charges unless otherwise specified. I ship by United States Postal Service only. I ship all silverware via USPS Priority Mail in boxes. I NEVER ship silverware in envelopes. I insure ALL shipping, as I sell old and scarce items that cannot be easily replaced. Domestic shipping charge for 1 pound or under is now $8.01 which is Priority Mail. International shipping charges vary widely, and I now must use only International Priority shipping, in order to be able to insure the package, purchase a tracking number and proof of delivery, all of which protect both buyer and seller. I now print shipping labels online to keep shipping costs down as much as possible, so I can ship only to the buyer’s confirmed address. I regret that I can no longer ship gifts directly to the recipient. Payment in US funds only, and I can accept only eBay’s payment system. I must receive payment in full within 7 days after the end of auction or a store purchase . Due to misuse of a former return policy, I will no longer accept returns. I will of course take responsibility for items that arrive damaged or if there is a serious error in the listing. See item description for payment & shipping methods. FREE scheduling, supersized images and templates. Get Vendio Sales Manager. FREE scheduling, supersized images and templates. Get Vendio Sales Manager. Over 100,000,000 served. Get FREE counters from Vendio today!