Everyone Owned It In The '20s — Now It's A Rare Utensil Set We'd Be Thrilled To Find

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When shopping at the thrift store, there are certain things people tend to skip over. There's so much to see and find that you might not even think about looking for forks and knives. However, there are some rare utensil sets that are worth hunting for. Even if you're just looking to add something special to your collection, secondhand shops often have plenty of great sets and pieces that are worth picking up at decent prices. One iconic brand to hunt for at the thrift is Gorham, and you might want to look for one of their most popular patterns: the Chantilly in sterling silver.

Gorham Chantilly silverware was first introduced in 1895 and is made with real sterling silver. This means that it needs to be polished to prevent the vintage silver from tarnishing. The design is a bit more simple than other flatware of its time, featuring elegant scrollwork detail and handle design similar to a fleur-de-lis. There's also open space on the handle that is often used for people to add monograms to, which is a style you often find on vintage pieces at the thrift store. 

The Gorham Chantilly is also highly valuable, in part because of the silver content. A single soup spoon has sold on eBay for $99, while a set of six teaspoons have sold for just under $200. Full sets can command thousands of dollars, even without a case. In fact, an eight-service set with 66 utensils sold on eBay for nearly $4000.

If you're looking to add a valuable utensil set that everyone owned in the early 1900s, then you'll definitely want to pick up Gorham's Chantilly silverware. Even though this pattern is still in production, secondhand pieces retain their value. Part of the reason for this is the sterling silver, which is, of course, a precious metal. While non-monogrammed silverware can fetch a higher price when reselling, even the monogrammed utensils maintain their value. 

When looking over the Gorham Chantilly pieces that you find in the thrift store, you'll want to check for the markings on the back of the handles. Depending on when the pieces were produced, they will either say "Gorham Sterling" or "Pat 1895" with the word "Sterling" after the symbols for the company: a lion, an anchor, and a stylized G. The ones with the name Gorham spelled out were produced after 1950. You'll want to carefully check for these markings since other brands have released their own versions of this iconic design.

Other things to consider include the condition of individual pieces, so you'll want to look over every single item included in a set. Check for any bent tines on forks and bending of the handles. Look for dents and excessive scratch marks in the silver or even material loss from excessive polishing, which can all impact the detail work in the design. You'll also want to determine if there are marks that show repair work was done on a piece, which can impact value and use stability.