Tray Cheek!

Some things come into your life totally by accident.
(No jokes about children, now . . . behave yourselves.)

A couple of weekends ago, Howard and I were in the tiny courtyard
of a city row house, politely haggling over the price of an old
wrought iron table and chairs, when, from the corner of my eye,
I spotted some very alluring curves.

They belonged to this:

An enormous tray.  Painted white.

All these pictures were taken after an initial cleaning; the tray was black with dirt when found.

I didn't want to frighten anyone with the serious schmutz that was on this tray.

This is after some hard scrubbing.

It was being used as the lid for an outdoor recycling bin, and was beyond filthy.

I lifted a corner, and felt its heft.  Which is considerable.

It's huge, has gorgeous lines, and I thought, "Hey, let's make a deal."

You have to be a little cheeky that way, to get the best bargains.

So, we did.  Make a deal.

We agreed to a price for the table and chairs,

and in return we also got the big tray.  Smiles all around.

I figured it was silverplate under the paint.  Yup.

 I found three marks on the bottom.

I don't know how to use the Macro setting on Howard's camera yet, so this is the best I could do:

 Time to Google.

Research always pays off.  The Internet is my friend.
This mark, below, means it was made by the Barbour Silver Company, in Connecticut,

and the E.P. in B.S.C.E.P. probably means "electroplated."

In 1898 Barbour was bought by International Silver, and that was added to its mark.

So . . . this fellow is quite the old gent.  At least 113 years old.  Wow.

The tray's underside was not painted.

It's had a long, busy working career; look at the wear on the feets.

I wonder how it felt about being out in the weather, keeping alley cats out of empty recycled soup cans?

It is so big that I can't fit it into my gargantuan kitchen sink.

When I started cleaning it, some paint peeled off,

and I understood why someone had painted it in the first place.

Whoa.  Technicolor tarnish and wear.

So what would you do with this tray?

Obviously it needs more cleaning.  But after that . . .

Strip the paint off, and probably find that most of the silver plating is worn off, topside?

Or give it a good sanding, and simply repaint it?

He is crazy heavy, but ain't he a beaut?

My tray cheek netted us something tres chic, I think.
Oh.  That's so corny it hurts.  -- Cass

Look!  A monogram! I spy a K on the right,
but can't decipher the other two.

A Link Party

Kathleen at Faded Charm hosts White Wednesday.

If you are a fan of white -- and who is not? -- then please visit!

Click here.