My wife & I will be spending two months in Paris and my mom is visiting for a week in late September. She's a life-long collector of <b>antique and contemporary silver</b>, but she focuses more on silver from the 18th and 19th century.

Suggestions? I'm already planning a visit to Village St. Paul. Will we find antique silver there? Would she enjoy the Puiforcat store on rue Peclet?

Thank you in advance.

Louvre des Antiquaires on Rivoli, across from Louvre has many high end dealers.

http://www.louvre-antiquaires.com/

A search shows several silver items.

I remember a store carrying silver on rue de Turenne about half way between rue St. Antoine and rue Francs Bourgeois on the west side of the street....t.sorry I can't recall the name of it.

There is an antique silver shop along the Viaduc des Arts, and definitely the Louvre des Antiquaires mentioned above.If you are there on a Sat or Sun , there are several sellers at the Port de Vanves market. Or come to Fl and I'll sell her some so I can buy more at the Nov brocante!!

There were many many silver stalls at the Marche au Puces several years ago when we visited. Some had really nice things, both holloware and flatware.

I bought a punch ladle which as seen lots of use.

Byrd

The Clignancourt flea market is immense, with many dealers specializing in particular types of items. You can research their website and locate the sellers of antique silver on the maps and plan out a day going from one to another of them. Open Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (but my experience was that many dealers are not open Monday, so weekends are best).

The web site for the entire market is http://www.parispuces.com/en/Default.asp

You can look at the web pages linked to the individual markets and search for silver dealers.

Be sure to investigate the Tax-Free tax rebate scheme whereby if you export pricey goods from France on your way out you can get a refund of some or all of the VAT or Value-Added-Tax of perhaps 20% or more that you pay on all luxury goods and even non-luxury goods - those the VAT on luxury goods could be more. Shops participating will have a Tax-Free logo on their doors or windows.

With a little time on my hands..

http://www.argenterie-dantan.com/?lang=en

madarine 25 Rue Saint-Paul (Art-Deco)

ARGENTERIE DE TURENNE 19 Rue De Turenne (near Place des Vosges)

Wow, thank you everyone! My mom will enjoy a very memorable birthday indeed. (And it's her first one without my father, who died in April.)

You can still get some good deals on antique silverware in Holland. Most of the antiek shops in Haarlem are long gone. There used to be plenty. Go to a low rent city.

Here is one you won't find everywhere,
http://tinyurl.com/3ndadzt.
The caption is
<i>During the German occupation of the Netherlands, 1940-45, the Nazi authorities ordered the citizens to turn in all their Dutch silver and gold coins. Jewelry was exempted. Therefore, according to the jeweler I bought this from, some of the clever Dutchies made jewelry out of their money!! Here is a string of 21 silver dimes from 1943. Look for similar items in antiek jewelry stores. </i>

Second Nikki's recommendation of Clignancourt. It's a must do. You have to get past all the t-shirt and crap vendors but once you're into the real antique dealers, you will be very surprised if you don't find some real treasures. I always do (and I always leave a little space in my luggage for my indulgences). Porte de Clignancourt is on Line 4 of the subway system.