Imitation Silver Cases

[Don Dahlberg]

I have been trying to figure out the earliest date for silveroid and other "German Silver" or "Nickel Silver" watch cases. Friday a volunteer at the NAWCC Library found an advertisement from the Collins Gold Metal Watch Co. They sold watches in imitation gold and imitation silver cases. The pamphlet was dates 1871. Searching Google for "Collins Gold Metal Watch" I found a reference to a 1868 New York Hearld advertisement for the company.

So I am conluding that imitation silver cases are appropriate going back as far as 1971 and perhaps a few years earlier (1868). Of course, specific brands of imitation silver like Silveroid came later.

We know that German Silver (really nickel, and brass) was known in the early 18th century and was being produced in Germany and England and large qunatities by the 1840s.

Does anyone have dates for the various brands and versions of imitation silver cases (like Silveroid and etc.)? Does anyone have an earlier date for an imitation silver case than 1871?

Don Dahlberg
NAWCC Volunteer

[Tom McIntyre]

Don, I wonder if "imitation silver" could also include "silver filled" cases. Since it appears in the same sentence as "imitation gold" I would be suspicious that it might not mean nickel silver.

[robert callaghan]

Don: Wasn't there a material called "pinchbeck" (sp) used for cases in England in the 1700's ?

[Don Dahlberg]

According to the internet search, there were many variations on nickel, copper and zinc alloys. The proportions were changed and other ingredients added to change the color or characterists. The alloys go back to the early 1700s in India under the name of Tutenag and China under the name of Paktong. The alloy moved to Autria and then to England. Much of it was used as a matrix onto which silver cold be electroplated. As I said, it had many trade names and variations. So the question is, when did it appear in the US in the form of watch cases?

We often find keywind - keyset watches in imitation silver cases. We assume they have been recased. Is that necessarily true? What is the earliest date appropriate for a imitation silver case? I am beginning to think that it is much earlier than we suspected in the past.

Tom, the brochure talks more about their imitation gold. "Collins Gold Metal is the best imitation of gold we have seen. It can be made to assume all the varieties of shade of which gold is capable."

"This metal is a composition of other metals so closely resembling gold that the best judges cannot detect the difference, except by chemical test." and so on. Nickel - copper - zinc alloys can be made to look very much like gold by using more copper.

"The material composing the cases is our new Composition Silver, and looks eaqual to the real silver itself."

Don