Quadruple plate
A grade name stamped on nineteenth-century American silver-plated ware, found on hollowware such as serving dishes. Makers sold plate in named grades, and the word is the maker’s own claim about its plating, not a standard set by law.
How to read it
American electroplaters sold the same piece at several grades of plating. The Meriden Silver Plate Company’s 1883 catalogue priced its spoons and forks by the dozen in Extra Plate, Double Plate and Triple Plate (tipped teaspoons at $4.25, $5.50 and $6.75), and noted that pieces sold as Single Plate did not bear its trade mark. Quadruple plate is the same kind of word. The New Hampshire Historical Society has a covered serving dish made by the Meriden Britannia Company in about 1869, marked on the bottom with two overlapping circles: MERIDEN B. COMPANY with a scale in a shield in one, QUADRUPLE PLATE in the other, and a patent date of 9 February 1869 below.
Also searched as: a1 silver plate, quad plate, quadruple plate, quadruple silver plate, triple plate.
A mark is a claim made by whoever struck or cast it. This page says what each mark means and when it was used; it doesn’t test, authenticate or value anything.
What the law asks of plate
The US Federal Trade Commission’s guides, which cover flatware and hollowware, ask that a product described as plated or coated with silver have a coating of reasonable durability on all its significant surfaces. The National Gold and Silver Stamping Act names silver plate and silver electroplate among the plated goods it covers. Neither gives a meaning for triple or quadruple.
A Sheffield firm’s view
Walker & Hall of Sheffield told its customers in Australia and New Zealand, in a catalogue of about 1900, that visitors to its plating works would see that pieces stayed in the vats until they had their full quantity of silver, and that the use of the words triple and quadruple was therefore “a clever fiction”.
A1 and other grade marks
Grade words were also struck on flatware. Meriden Silver Plate’s 1883 catalogue gives its trade mark for spoons and forks as “MERIDEN SILVER CO.—A1.” A1 there is part of the maker’s mark, not a measured quantity.
Look-alikes
Quadruple plate says how much plating a maker claimed, not what is under it. Letters such as EPNS and EPBM name the base metal; see EP, EPBM and other electroplate marks and EPNS.
Read next
- Next in Silver plate, pewter and cast iron marksSheffield plateSheffield plate, also called Old Sheffield plate or fused plate, is copper with a layer of silver fused onto it before the sheet was shaped, made from the 1740s until electroplating replaced it in the mid-nineteenth century. It is not solid silver, and the name does not mean silver hallmarked in Sheffield.
- The same shape in Certification marksCertified VeganVegan Action’s Certified Vegan logo: the product contains no animal products or by-products and has not been tested on animals.
More silver plate, pewter and cast iron marks
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with letters and numbers or curves and waves.
Sources
- Illustrated catalogue and price list, Meriden Silver Plate Co. (1883), The Meriden Silver Plate Co., Illustrated catalogue and price list of staple goods, superior electro-silver plated ware (Hartford, 1883), Internet Archive text (University of Toronto copy), Internet Archive, pp. 14, 79–80 (trade mark and price list)
- Dish, Serving, Meriden Britannia Company, ca. 1869 (New Hampshire Historical Society), New Hampshire Historical Society, collections, object 1973.072.02, New Hampshire Historical Society, object record
- Electro-plate, cutlery & sterling silver (Walker & Hall trade catalogue, ca. 1900), Walker & Hall, Sheffield, Electro-plate, cutlery & sterling silver [trade catalogue for Australasia, ca. 1900], Internet Archive text, Internet Archive, opening letter
- Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries (16 CFR Part 23), 16 CFR Part 23 (1 January 2021 edition), Federal Trade Commission, published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office, § 23.0(a); § 23.5(b)(5)
- Falsely Stamped Gold or Silver or Goods Manufactured Therefrom (15 U.S.C. chapter 8), 15 U.S.C. 291–300, the National Gold and Silver Stamping Act (2021 edition), U.S. Government Publishing Office, § 297(a)
Last reviewed October 8, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research
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