Final run from Eileen Prentice • In 14 active carts • Only 93 left
Eileen's Christmas Flatware Set — 6 Pieces
Eileen's Christmas Flatware Set — 6 Pieces
Ships within 2–3 business days
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Eileen's Christmas Flatware Set — 6 Pieces
Polished, Painted And Packed By Hand In A Connecticut Finishing Shop
Eileen Prentice, 68, has run Prentice Plate & Polish in Meriden for thirty-one years — the town they used to call America's Silver City. She sold the building in September. These are the last 800 sets she will ever ship.
“Cookies, a candle, a gift card in a little envelope. I've given all three. I've gotten all three. If it's eaten, burned or spent by the second week of January, it wasn't really a gift — it was a receipt with a ribbon on it. So I made something that goes on the table while the coffee is still hot, and then goes back in the drawer until next December.”
— Eileen Prentice, Meriden, ConnecticutPut the set out and within about ninety seconds everyone has claimed one. The reindeer belongs to the grandson by the window. The snowman belongs to whoever got there first and is not giving it up. Next year, the same people reach for the same ones.
Silver plate tarnishes. That means a cloth, a cabinet, and a person who decides it's too nice to put on the table. Eileen spent fifty years watching beautiful flatware sit in drawer liners. This finish doesn't tarnish, doesn't need polishing, and goes in the dishwasher.
Each piece runs 6.5 inches long and a hair over half an inch wide — a proper coffee spoon and a proper cake fork, not a novelty too small to eat with. Weight is the first thing a flatware polisher notices, every time. That part is not an accident.
The stainless blanks come from a mill in upstate New York. Everything after that happens on Eileen's benches: the mirror polish, the hand-painting of every figure, setting each figure on its stem, final inspection and packing.
Eleven months in a drawer, then a week of working every afternoon. Nobody brings a Christmas present in to be restored, because Christmas presents don't get used. This one does — which is the entire reason it exists.
Every figure is finished by hand — the face, the trim, the small details a machine pass leaves flat. Two women come back every summer to work the season with Eileen. They've been at it long enough that she can tell whose brush did which reindeer.
“Let me be straight about what this is, because I've spent thirty years around people who exaggerate it. I don't pour steel. Nobody in Connecticut pours steel for teaspoons anymore — the houses we finished for closed or moved overseas by the end of the eighties, and most of the shops on our street went with them. What I could keep here was the finishing: the polish, the paint, the inspection, the packing. I couldn't keep all of it here. So I kept what I could, for thirty-one years. That's the honest version, and it's the one I'd rather sell.”
Eileen Prentice · flatware plating and polishing, 31 years, Meriden, Connecticut- One of the final 800. Fourteen hundred sets were prepared across the summer — polish through June and July, paint and set through August, packed in September. When they're gone there is no reorder, because the building is sold and there's no bench left to make more on.
- Painted by hand, one figure at a time. Not printed, not stickered, not sprayed. The face, the trim and the detail laid on with a brush.
- Eighty years of one trade behind it. Eileen's grandfather opened the shop in 1946, her father ran it after him, and she took it over in 1995. Meriden was the Silver City, and this is one of the last shops in it.
- Nothing to maintain. Gold-tone finish on stainless steel. No tarnish, no polishing cloth, no cabinet. It goes in the dishwasher with everything else.
- Ready to give as it arrives. The green gift box with the window lid is the packaging, not an extra — it ships inside a plain shipper, so the box underneath stays clean.
Use them for one December afternoon — coffee, cake, everyone arguing over who gets the Santa. If it isn't what you pictured, send it back within 30 days for a full refund. One email, no questions. Every set is inspected by hand before it's boxed; that's been the rule in this shop since 1946.
| Set contents | Six pieces — three coffee spoons and three cake forks |
| Figures | Santa, Christmas tree, reindeer, red hat, snowman and stocking — one per piece, each hand-painted |
| Length | 6.5 in / 16.5 cm per piece |
| Width | 0.63 in / 1.6 cm at the handle |
| Material | Stainless steel with a gold-tone finish; hand-painted figure toppers set on the handle ends |
| Finish | Mirror-polished in the Meriden shop — does not tarnish, never needs polishing |
| Care | Dishwasher-safe, top or cutlery basket; no polish, no special cloth |
| Packaging | Dark green gift box with a red and green patterned window lid — ready to give as it arrives |
| Made by | Eileen Prentice, Prentice Plate & Polish, Meriden, Connecticut — founded 1946, finishing flatware for eighty years |
| Shipping | Ships from the United States, 3–7 business days — order by December 15 for Christmas |
| Remaining stock | 800 sets — the final run, with no reorder |
The Last Run
The Last Run
Some things are made by one pair of hands, for decades, and then never again.
The Final Series is the last work of craftspeople who are putting down their tools. No factory, no successor, no second batch.
Just the final pieces from their workshops, each one shaped by a lifetime of getting it right.
When they're gone, they're gone.
Free Shipping Across the US
Free Shipping Across the US
Free tracked shipping across the United States
- Ships within 2–3 business days
- 90-day money-back guarantee — just email info@backroad-goods.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question? Here's how to reach us.
Got a question? Here's how to reach us.
Email us anytime at info@backroad-goods.com. We answer Monday to Friday 9am–5pm and Saturday mornings 10am–1pm Eastern. Every order is packed by Treva's grandkids Addison and Tanner in Frankenmuth, so if you need something changed before it goes out, just say so.
Can I return it if it's not for me?
Can I return it if it's not for me?
Of course. 90-day money-back guarantee. Fill it, carry it, use it through the holidays — and if it isn't right for you, email info@backroad-goods.com within 90 days for a full refund. No forms, no argument.