Vintage Paden retailer City Glass Sandwich Tray Serving Platter With a Swan Handle Sterling Silver Overlay Marked Sterling

Beautiful glass and sterling silver overlay serving piece. Great for serving cookies, fruit, berries, candy or tea sandwiches, etc.

Intricate patterned silver overlay and silver edging. The pattern features leaves and flowers. It is Paden City sandwich tray pattern #1504. It is marked sterling in 3 places.

Nice swan head glass handle. All in all this is an exquisite serving piece for entertaining.

11” across x 5" high

Good vintage condition. No chips or cracks, some loss of silver on the edge (see pictures).

Place it anywhere in your house where you want to add true elegance.

Silver overlay and silver deposit were regarded as an exquisite, special gift or accent for that certain table or shelf. A few nice pieces of overlay were as evident in the genteel home as a piano in those days of refined, yet simple pleasures.
The Great Depression caused many of the glass companies to either go out of business or resort to specializing in cheaper, more affordable glassware.
The era of expensive sterling silver applied to glass was all but over and not many pieces can be found that were manufactured after the mid-1930s.
All overlay glasses have a design in silver 'electroplated' into the glass using electrolytic tecnique. The techniques of depositing the silver involve painting the design onto the glass with flux containing silver mixed with turpentine, firing this design in a kiln, cooling and cleaning the glass and then immersing it in a solution of silver through which a tiny electric current was passed. The silver was then built up on the area where the design had been painted.

An alternative method involved coating the whole surface with silver, painting the design onto the silver with a 'resist' and then dissolving away the unwanted parts of the silver.

The origin of this piece is unknown but quite possibly it was made in the retailer USA, by Paden City Glass Co, Meriden, CT (a firm active since 1907)