Antique Silver Salvers between £0 and £0
A salver is a flat serving plate on small feet, made for handing drinks, letters or calling cards.
What Is A Salver?
The form settled in British silver in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when the earlier footed tazza gave way to a low plate standing on small feet. Smaller versions became the card tray and the waiter. From the nineteenth century the same shapes were made in fused plate and electroplate as well as sterling.
The word "tray" does as much work as "salver" in the listings, appearing in just over half the titles, and the two are used interchangeably for the same object. Circular is the default; square salvers are a minority of nineteen titles and cluster in the 1920s and 1930s alongside the cocktail and drinks trays.
The one you are most likely to meet is a round Victorian or Edwardian salver of eight to twelve inches. Victorian is the largest single period label in the archive, ahead of the 1930s, Georgian and Edwardian, and the dated field runs from 1700 to 1960. Sampled hallmark years reach back to 1731 and forward to 1969.
Metal splits close to evenly. Sterling appears in one set of titles, plated in another of similar size, and Old Sheffield plate makes up a small distinct group of pieces dated around 1780 to 1850. Assay towns quoted in titles are London, Sheffield, Birmingham and Chester regularly, with Glasgow, Dublin, Newcastle and York only occasionally.
What Sets Them Apart
Metal does most of the sorting. Hallmarked sterling holds the upper band, while plated and Old Sheffield examples sit lower, and plate only climbs back up when the piece is very large. A title that names an assay town and year, or a maker, tends to sit above one reading simply "antique silver plated salver".
Then size and weight. Six to eight inch card trays are at the bottom, twelve to fourteen inches in the middle, and the sixteen, seventeen and nineteen inch pieces and the 47cm and 70cm platters at the top. Stated weights run from around 100g up to 2.9kg and beyond, and the heaviest cluster with the highest-priced.
Date pulls in the same direction. Georgian hallmarks, particularly the 1731 to 1780 pieces, sit well above the Victorian and twentieth-century average. Pairs and sets are uncommon, fourteen titles in all, including graduated pairs and one set of three.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for silver salvers between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Silver salvers have been listed on Sellingantiques since 2008, with over five hundred through the archive since then.
Elkington·Walker & Hall·William Hutton & Sons
The Antique Silver Salvers between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Salver
- A flat footed serving plate, usually round or square, for handing drinks, cards or letters.
- Waiter
- A small salver, generally under about eight inches; eleven titles use the word.
- Card tray
- A small salver made for calling cards, the exact phrase appearing in twenty-three titles.
- Old Sheffield Plate
- Fused silver on copper, made before electroplating, covering the c1780 to c1850 pieces in this category.
- Chippendale border
- A shaped rim with scrolls and shell notches, named in several sterling titles.
- Engine turned
- Machine-cut geometric surface ornament, named on the cocktail and Art Deco trays.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a salver and a tray?
In the listings, very little. "Tray" turns up in just over half the titles and describes the same flat footed plate as "salver".
Where the words do separate is at the small end: six to eight inch pieces are called card trays, card waiters or teapot stands.
Are most antique salvers solid silver or plated?
You meet both in near-equal numbers. Sterling is declared in one large group of titles, plated in another of similar size, with "solid" adding more to the silver side.
Old Sheffield plate, fused silver on copper, forms a smaller separate group dated roughly 1780 to 1850.
How old are the salvers on Sellingantiques?
The dated field runs from 1700 to 1960, and about half the listings carry a clean year rather than an era label.
Victorian is the largest single label, then the 1930s, Georgian, Edwardian and the decades either side of 1900. Sampled hallmark years include 1731, 1735, 1739 and 1742 at the early end, and 1966 and 1969 at the late.
Era labels such as "19th Century" and "Georgian" should be read as approximations.
Which assay towns appear on British salvers?
London, Sheffield, Birmingham and Chester come up regularly in the titles.
Glasgow, Dublin, Newcastle and York appear only occasionally, the last two just once each in the sample.
How big do salvers get?
Sizes quoted in titles start at six to eight inches for card trays and run up through twelve to fourteen inches to sixteen, seventeen and nineteen inch pieces.
The largest recorded are three 47cm salvers and a pair of 70cm Georgian trays. Stated weights reach 2.9kg and above.
Are square salvers common?
No. Circular is the default shape, and square accounts for only nineteen titles.
Those that are square cluster in the 1920s and 1930s, sitting alongside the cocktail and drinks trays of the same years.