By HELAINE
FENDELMAN
and JOE ROSSON

Scripps Howard News Service

Q: I've attached a picture of a plate with the word "cake" engraved on it. On the back, it shows the initials "EP" and "WH." It is stamped "Forbes Silver Co. Warranted 0527 Hamilton Canada." My mother is a native of Hamilton, Ontario, and she is interested in learning the value of this plate.

A: First, let's deal with the initials "EP" and "WH," because they point to the heart of the matter and say exactly what this piece is.

"EP" stands for "electroplate," which means the plate was manufactured using electricity and a solution that contained silver ions and potassium cyanide. "WH" stands for "white metal," meaning that the base metal used to make the body of this piece contained an alloy of tin, copper, lead, antimony and bismuth.

Electroplating silver and gold onto base metals is a process that has been around for a long time. It is said that Italian chemist Luigi Brugnatelli invented the process in 1805; he used a voltaic pile to produce the necessary electricity. Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile --a sort of electric battery --in 1800.

Sadly for Brugnatelli, Napoleon Bonaparte suppressed the publication of his work, but Brugnatelli did get the word out in the Belgian Journal of Physics and Chemistry. Still, little was done commercially with this process until Dr. John Wright, an Englishman, discovered that potassium cyanide was necessary to make everything work; he sold his findings to Elkington & Co. in Birmingham, England.

Henry and George Elkington incorporated Wright's findings in their patent of 1840, and Elkington & Co. held something of a monopoly on the silver-electroplating process for years, selling licenses to other companies. When this process made its way to the United States, the Meriden Britannia Company in Meriden, Conn., became one of the major firms to adopt its use.

At first, Meriden Britannia manufactured Britannia ware, which is similar to pewter. But by 1855, it offered silver-plated hollowware and flatware. In 1894, Meriden Britannia founded the Forbes Silver Company, whose mark appears on the cake plate in today's question.

Forbes did not manufacture the objects; it plated hollowware pieces obtained from third parties and from the parent company. Much of Forbes' silver-plating was "quadruple plate," referring to the amount of silver used to plate the base metal's surface. It was the thickest coating commonly used, with the exception of what is called "federal specifications plate."

Both Meriden Britannia and Forbes became part of the International Silver Company, which incorporated in 1898 and remained in business under that name until the early 1980s. The charming silver-plated cake plate belonging to N.B. appears to be late 19th or early 20th century.

The value of vintage silver electroplate is fairly modest, and for insurance-replacement purposes, this example should be valued in the $100-to-$125 range. As for the reference to Hamilton, Ontario, we found a hint that the base of this piece may have been made by Wm. A. Rogers, an Ontario company.

Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson are the authors of "Price It Yourself."