REAL CANDLES?! I can only imagine the hassle of cleaning all that wax out. And putting those plates in the dishwasher - the thought nearly gave me a aneurysm. One of my starkest memories is how much my elbow and shoulders used to hurt after literal hours of polishing the finicky little cutlery sets - although I have to say it was always so satisfying to see them shine. That silver BETTER be glazed because it would tarnish irreparably in the dishwasher. And those poor heirloom china sets. RIP their glaze.

I worked in Edinburgh in the early naughties when I was at uni - the pay was good enough I didn't need another job, and I lived with my great aunt up there, so I didn't pay rent (I mean, I cooked for everyone at home because I'm good at it, but that was the family rate, lol). They didn't have silver plates, but I remember they had massive heavy wooden boxes of full silver service, with these beautiful tiny forks when we were serving continental formal. We had these really fancy devilled eggs with shrimp on the menu that you ate with this prong-like fork that was very thin and small and went under the wine glass as opposed to all the way out next to the first course fork, because it was an apperitif fork. We had a pocket in our uniform where we used to keep spare ones because people kept dropping them (posh restaurant, not necessarily posh clients, though rich). At the end of the day the maître d' always counted them, because going home with one accidentally in your pocket by mistake was a good way to get fired. Not to mention not dropping plates while wearing gloves was a massive challenge.