“The substitution of electro-plate for real silver is now so common in households where the latter would be regarded as a superfluous luxury, that the sternest advocate of true principles in art-manufacture would scarcely require an apology for its use.” (Charles Eastlake, Hints on Household Taste, 1878)

George Richard Elkington and his cousin and partner, Henry Elkington successfully developed electroplating, electrotyping and electrogilding processes from earlier experiments and made them commercially viable. The cousins were not inventors but innovators who, by applying the techniques to industry, revolutionized the silver and plating trades all over the world. In the 1840s, licences to make the new products were sold widely in Britain and abroad to firms such as Christofle & Co. in Paris. Electroplate, a cheaper and more durable substitute for silver, replaced Sheffield plate within ten years and challenged the supremacy of silver on the dining tables and in the drawing rooms of Europe.

Manufacturers from the 1880s onwards came up with a number of trade names, such as "Victa Silver" to enhance the appeal of their products and lay claim to the glamour of the silver they imitated.