Off Topic - Gorham 150th Anniversary Sterling Silver Tea Set 1 of 15

I try and stay on topic most of the time.  This is after all my watch blog but I do still have the antiques and metals I deal in.  So a friend of mine who is the manager of a pwn shop called me up to ask if something someone was trying to sell him was real.  After a few minutes of conversation he sent me a few pictures.  Full sterling mark for Gorham along with the other information   So I tried looking it up but I could only fins an eBay which said that the said it had a retail of $18,000 and that it was purchased for $10,500.  My cost.....just under scrap.

If I am not mistaken it is a tea pot, coffee pot, creamer and sugar with lid.  The pattern is named "Chantilly".  The set is not light and comes in at just over 81 troy ounces.

"Gorham Sterling 150 years of Craftsmanship 1831-1981 Limited Edition 1/15" The 597 on this piece is a reference number for this particular teapot and each of the other pieces have a different reference number.

All pieces are marked the same "1/15" and the reference number changes.  I even lucked out and have all paper labels still in perfect condition.  One thing I cant understand is why it looks like only the tall coffee pot appears to have tarnished and been used.  All other pieces seem to be completely unused.

Way more tarnish even on the bottom.  I did manage to get most of it off of the rest of the piece. This posed its own challenge as the entire finish to the pieces is a brushed one.

The lack of a high polish means that you have to use much different methods to remove tarnish and more stubborn spots.  I ended up making a baking soda paste.  The baking soda actually acts to remove the tarnish as you rub by hand and the actual particles help maintain that fine brushed look.

That said though it may still polish more as the particles are very small so I will need to buy some steel wool to help keep the finish correct.  If you have any of these pieces please try and maintain the finish the best you can.

The gold wash inside the creamer is superb with a beautiful mirror shine.  The overall finish of the pieces gives you an idea of the quality work they put into them.  Each one had the pattern done by hand.

I wish I could have gotten this sheet and the original receipt from the owners but they decided to keep them after they sold the set to the store.

So here is my appeal to anyone out there that has one of these sets....  Please comment or send me a message.  I am trying to find out how many of these very limited production sets survive.  I don't care how old this post gets, you can still comment or message me.  I believe one set is no longer complete.  I have seen that Replacements has had a teapot in that was marked for the 150th anniversary so that is one down.  In the recent years silver prices spiked and I am curious if any of these made their way to the refinery.

These are way too rare and too nice of a set to just be treated as scrap metal.  Mine now resides in a display cabinet with my other silver.