05/21/2021
Last week we had a beautiful silver plater wrapped up for short-term storage at a customer's facility. All of the silver products in our care are handled with new cotton gloves to prevent the natural oils on our hands and fingers from tarnishing the silver while inspecting, managing, and wrapping the pieces.
We follow this step by cleaning the items with a Hagerty silver duster to help create a tarnish-proof barrier, and the item is then wrapped in a tarnish-free silver cloth. Silver cloth has small particles of silver and zinc embedded in it that attract sulfur compounds before reacting with the item we are protecting.
If the item stays in our facility, we will store the item in an archival grade, acid-free box, with a silica gel desiccant that can be reactivated when they become saturated. Suppose we are shipping the item for a customer. In that case, like we were here, we will wrap the pieces with multiple layers of small bubble wrap, followed by large bubble wrap with disposable silica gel packets in the archival quality acid-free cardboard boxes.
Silver protection needs to be thought of as multi-pronged coordination of elements to prevent tarnishing and damage while in storage. Each layer of protection you can add will mean the silver charged to your care will look as good the day it was picked up. Even if it isn't us, please make sure that you contact professionals who know how to handle your antique silver items. Anyone can pack anything, but it takes a professional to understand how to do it Wright 😜.
