What is "Solid Cassilla Silver" ?

[trhunter7777]

Hello everyone

Got a spoon yesterday at a thrift store marked "Solid Cassilla Silver". I havn't found anything after a quick google search, anyone familiar with the term? My first thought was it was no value like nickel silver but has a good feel and is monogramed.

 

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[Red-Coat]

In the mid to late 1800s a number of tarnish-resistant alloys imitating silver but with no silver content began appearing. Usually alloys of copper, zinc, and nickel plus sometimes tin. Their public appeal was enhanced by giving them various names such as German Silver, New Silver and Nickel silver or more exotic names like Maillechort, Argentan, Albata and Alpacca/Alpaca. The term ‘Cassilla silver’ is likely in that same territory, but not well-documented.

I have seen some very unattractive utilitarian cutlery marked as ‘Solid Cassilla Silver’ produced by the Thomas Manufacturing Company founded in Springfield, Ohio in 1874 and then operating out of Dayton, Ohio from 1915. Also some fancier pieces from undetermined makers. I suspect ‘Cassilla’ was a short-lived invented name for a silver imitation from a small regional producer. Maybe even the Thomas company themselves, who mainly produced farm tools, plus things like pumps, steam engines and bicycles but could well have been a supplier of cast metal to other businesses.

These kinds of alloys could be silver-plated but won’t otherwise have any silver content and, even if plated, it will be thin electroplate.

 

[Red-Coat]

PS: If you show us the spoon and any marks it has, we might be able to identify a maker.

 

[tamrock]

Seems there's a lot creative names for this particular alloy flatware. As red-coat says an image might reveal more about what it is. I got curious about a piece marked Nevada Silver I found one time and learned what it really was.

Alpaca or Alpacca Silver
Aluminum Silver
Austrian Silver
Brazil or Brazilian Silver
Bristol Silver
Burmaroid Silver
England Silver
German Silver
Indian Silver
Japanese Silver
Laxey Silver
Mexican Silver
Nevada Silver
Nickel Silver
Paktong
Pearl Silver
Potosi Silver
Solid G Silver (aka German Silver)
Sonora Silver
Tyrol Silver
Venetian Silver
Yukon Silver

 

[Red-Coat]

Good list tamrock... and even then not an exhaustive list. You could add in Argentine Silver, Bengal Silver, Tibetan Silver and a bunch of others. One particularly cynical one to watch out for is the "US Sterling Co." stamp on flatware, which has no relationship to the Sterling standard and contains no silver.