George VI Sterling Silver Tea and Coffee Service, 1948

• Finial - An architectural decoration, found on the upper parts of of an object. On furniture they are usually found on pediments, canopies and shelf supports. On smaller ceramic or silver items, such as spoons, they may decorate the top of the item itself, or the lid or cover where they provide a useful handle for removal.
  
  Finials have a variety of shapes and forms. They may be urn-shaped, baluster shaped round or spiral, but usually taper into an upper point. Many real life shapes may also be used as finials, such as pineapples, berries, pinecones, buds, lotus and acorns. Sometimes animals such as a lion are depicted, or fish and dolphins.
• Sterling Silver - Sterling silver is a mixture of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% of another metal, usually copper. Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver, and is relatively soft and the addition of the very small amount of copper gives the metal enough strength and hardness to be worked into jewellery, decorative and household objects.
• Engraving - The method of decorating or creating inscriptions on silver and other metal objects by marking the surface with a sharp instrument such as a diamond point or rotating cutting wheel.
• George Vi - George VI (1895 ? 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 1936 until his death in 1952. He was the last Emperor of India, and the first Head of the Commonwealth. he was the father of Queen Elizabeth II.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• coffee sets/services - silver items 412
• Hardy Bros. (Australia) - silver, silver plate and decorative items 667
• tea sets/services - silver items 129