Beautifully restored Acme Silver Company quadruple silverplate covered butter dish with floral engraving and a basket of flowers for the finial!
This lovely Acme Silver quadruple silverplate covered butter dish has a ruffled edge, two applied side handles attached with leaf motif. The domed butter dish lid is heavily engraved with bright cut work on both sides, featuring various flowers, leaves, berries and tendrils.
There is no silverplate wear or loss to note, no dings, dents, dimples or other damage. There is a slight ring of restoration blush around the finial. The inside base has a small area of surface scratching which has been re-silvered, and the lid has a slight wobble when place on the base.
Both the insides and outsides of this fine antique silver butter dish are finished in a high polished silver finish, except where noted around the top where a slight hint of silver blush is noted.
About Silver Plate and Silverplate Covered Butter Dishes
Years ago, cooking in America called for tremendous amounts of butter. Though margarine made its appearance during World War II, there was no substitute for butter when most of the silver shown on this page was produced.
In order to use butter in the large one-pound blocks in which it was generally sold, a dish was invented that not only helped with the presentation at the table, but was a necessity. Most silver and silverplate butter dishes consist of three silver parts: the lid, the pierced liner, and the base. Butter was placed on the liner, allowing the excess water from the butter to drain through the piercing. If the weather was warm, ice was added with the butter on top, and the melting ice could drain through the piercing.
These silver and silverplated dishes are also known as domed butter dishes, covered butter dishes and just butter dishes. These more ornate butter dishes are less common than the more commonly seen rectangular butter dishes - just slightly larger than a stick of modern butter. Rarely does one see these rounded butter dishes in use anymore, and they have achieved a strong collecting following.
For fancy dinners, the hostess may have had one of the servants make fancy molded pieces of butter called “butter pats” or butter balls, which were served on crushed ice in the butter dish to be picked up with a butter pick. These required yet another butter serving piece, itself known as a “butter pat.” Butter pats were tiny plates placed at each individual setting, to be used for a single piece of butter. They range in diameter from approximately 2 2/5 inches to about 3 ¼ inches, and were made in sterling as well in porcelain. Many sterling silver companies produced butter pats to match their sterling flatware patterns.
As butter began to be commercially produced for distribution in individually wrapped quarter pound cubes, the large form became obsolete. Thus the butter dish began a new form. This new dish usually had a crystal liner, to protect the silver from the salt used in making the butter. Most of the new butter dish forms are 8 – 9 inches long.
This antique Acme Silver quadruple silverplate domed butter dish measures 8.5" between the handles, 7" in diameter, stands 5.5" tall and weighs 1 pound, 2.3 ounces. Touchmarked on the bottom with THE ACME SILVER COMPANY, TORONTO, QUADRUPLE PLATE, the Acme Silver Company logo and the pattern number "247" You can read more about the history of the Acme Silver Company from our Silver Manufacturers pages.
A1566 - Antique Victorian ACME SILVER Quadruple Silver Plate Floral Covered Butter Dish
$200.00
