Metals.
Read beneath
the surface.

Composition names the metal or alloy. Surface describes a coating or finish. Construction tells you whether the piece is hollow, filled, joined or made from several materials. A gold-plated silver object has both a silver body and a gold surface; neither description explains whether it is hollow.

Use all three lines in your notes. “Silver-colored” records an observation. “Sterling silver” makes a claim about composition. A photograph can show the first without establishing the second.

Sterling’s standard is 925 parts per thousand silver (92.5 percent). Its remaining metal is often copper, although other alloying metals are possible. The Royal Society of Chemistry identifies sterling with both jewelry and tableware: the alloy belongs across collecting categories, rather than to one particular shape.

A stated .999 silver fineness means 99.9 percent silver. When an object is described as fine silver, keep its exact stated fineness and supporting specification together. Purity does not describe workmanship, condition or age.

Gold has its own familiar scale. Eighteen-karat gold is 18 parts gold out of 24, equivalent to 750 parts per thousand. Yellow is the characteristic color of the pure element, but alloying changes the picture. White gold is a gold alloy, sometimes made with palladium.

Platinum and palladium are separate silvery-white elements, both used in jewelry. They should not be grouped with silver simply because a photograph looks pale. Each needs its own material description and fineness; a finish may add another layer to investigate.

Copper appears in its own right and inside other materials. Brass combines copper and zinc; traditional bronze combines copper and tin. Copper can also be a partner in sterling or the core beneath silver plating. Those roles describe different objects, even when copper is present in all of them.

Nickel silver, also called German silver, is a copper–nickel–zinc alloy containing no silver. EPNS means electroplated nickel silver: silver is present in the applied layer, not as a constituent of the named base alloy. Keep the substrate and its coating on separate lines.

Old Sheffield plate was made by fusing silver to copper and rolling the joined metals into sheet before shaping them. Electroplating instead deposits a metal coating onto an object using electricity. These processes can produce silver surfaces while leaving a different metal underneath.

The V&A records an electroplated nickel-silver teapot of 1879, designed by Christopher Dresser for James Dixon & Sons. Its material description is part of its design history. A plated object can reward attention to form and manufacture without being catalogued as solid silver.

A scale weighs everything placed on it. A mounted figure may include a base; a hollow silver object may contain non-metallic filling. London’s Assay Office describes FILLED as a mark used for such filling under its applicable practice. Whole-object weight therefore cannot automatically become precious-metal weight.

Keep the seller’s wording, observed marks, component list and supporting reference together. Label uncertain details as questions. If identifying the material matters to a purchase or care decision, use the authenticity guide to plan further investigation rather than improvising a destructive test.

Then follow the object: jewelry adds fit and fastenings, flatware adds pattern and function, bullion adds product specifications, and figurines add bases and projecting details. The material atlas gives those different collections a shared vocabulary.