A woman after my own (and Miss Manners') heart. I inherited my mother's silver, which has long been discontinued, and found the ice cream forks (sporks?) at Replacements, Inc. for $40 EACH. I passed.

Barbara,
That is where she found her silver and both sets of china. Boxes arrive every week from Replacements. And she complains about the amount of wine I buy, at least we get to use what I buy

Um, you're supposed to be having dinner parties and set a gorgeous table (says someone with two sets of china and hasn't had anybody to dinner in years ).

Grover and I spent almost 8 hours in Replacements. A wonderful place. You wouldn't believe the goodies (and dreck) you can find there. No trip to Greensboro, NC is complete without a stop there.

A great place to find discontinued silver (and dishes and crystal -- just keep in mind that shipping will be pricey) is eBay. I found most of the silver to complete my set at around half of what you pay at Replacements and other similiar places.

You are lucky, the sporks (ice cream forks) for my silver pattern (Gorham Lansdowne) are $70 each at Replacements because they are nearly impossible to find.

They are the very last thing I need (have six, one is in the mail and need five more) to complete the set (well, within reason... there is always that asparagus server... and the bonbon server... and... )

I have used ebay extensively. I have a automatic search for my discontinued pattern and jump on deals when I can get them. I now have 24 place settings and am looking for all the odd pieces. Alas my pattern never had ice cream forks, so I got them in a simular but different pattern. I also get the updates from replacements that I occassionaly respond too.

I used Replacements for several years as I filled out my grandmother's old china pattern, paying premiums for both the china and the shipping. Then I switched to eBay and it was like a bonanza, as people emptied out grandma's attic and didn't care how much the items sold for - they just wanted it sold. Unfortunately, Replacements itself is now on eBay, and the bargains seem to be fewer and fewer.

With Replacements getting on eBay folks are probably figuring out that they can get more $$ and are upping the price.

I actually started my silver set on eBay, and filled in missing parts from Silverwarehouse, which I find a little easier to use than Replacements. However, you should always cross-check prices. For the Lansdowne ice-cream forks mentioned upthread, Silverwarehouse has 11 of them for $56.00 each, while Replacements has 24 for $46.99 each. Either way, a lot less than $70. On the other hand, the ice-cream fork is one piece I am willing to live my entire life without (that goes for baked potato serving forks as well).

My ice cream forks are a different style from either of those.

I am amazed that I have been able to survive in this world without knowing that these things existed.

The next time I have a dinner party for seven (or less) and serve ice cream, I'll be sure to invite you!

The ones that I have a hard time justifying are the dozen grapefruit spoons. Really, when am I going to have 12 people over, serve them grapefruit and use the good silver?

Now hold on a durn minute! Are you saying that Gorham made two different styles of ice-cream fork in the same pattern? If that's the case, you obviously need a set of each.

The pattern is so old (1917) that there is a good deal of variation. Two different types of knives (for both dinner and luncheon). Plus post WWII-era pieces that are smidge smaller than the earlier pieces.

Also, there are places like Replacements that are now custom making pieces using the handles of more common or damaged (I hope) pieces -- such as the two dozen ice cream forks they have for $46. At Replacements, those pieces are denoted with an "HC" after the piece name (which I assume stands for "hand-crafted").

So that's what HC means! I couldn't find an explanation on their website, which of course is not to say there isn't one. Do they fashion 24 of them and then announce they're for sale? Or do they really only fashion them when somebody orders them? I would think (and don't take this the wrong way) there is, well, a fairly low level of demand for sterling ice-cream forks. (Although come to think of it, there's probably even less demand for stainless-steel ice-cream forks.) I don't do ice cream, but when I serve sorbet I usually provide teaspoons, which I think would work well enough for ice cream. I suppose some guests might sniff and mutter rude comments under their breath. I see that Silverwarehouse has, in my pattern, a piece called an "Ideal Olive Spoon", for a mere $29. Maybe I need that. Of course, then I'd have to find some Ideal Olives.

Every so often I make a pass through Upscale Resale in Falls Church just to see what's in stock.

I got an almost complete 12 settings of the five piece set of Wedgwood White china for about $800 last year, then was able to pick up 10 of the rimmed soup bowls at the outlet store in Leesburg at a heavily discounted price. Unfortunately the other pieces sell for very ouchy prices. Like, the salad bowl retails for $110, discounted at $88 -- I've seen them for $70.

This is our every day china, no way I am letting the kids eat breakfast cereal out of a $110 bowl, or even a $70 bowl.

Thus, I am condemned to haunt eBay and Upscale Resale.

Little did I know what I was getting myself into when I began.