There are two types of silverplate tea sets and coffee pots. The first are made of Sheffield silver, which describes an English plating technique developed in the 1740s, in which a sheet of sterling silver was fused to a sheet of copper, creating a strong, bi-metal sandwich that could be formed and chased like sterling silver. About 100 years later, also in England, electroplating was introduced. It required even less silver, which meant silverplate tea sets and the like could be marketed to the country’s emerging middle class.