I have a piece that looks like it held a tankard, but all I have left is the lid handle and top and bottom bands they are all together.
On the bottom band is the words silver soldered and international silver co.
It also has a crest on the top with initials C H and the year 1894.
What is it? Where can I find about the crest??

Silver solder is a process for binding metals. Its in between brazing and lead soldering. Silversolder is much stronger then lead based solder.

Actually brazing is silver soldering.

EDIT(Addition - clarifies above statement): Silver soldering is a method of brazing. i.e. Brazing with a silver filler material.

Silver soldering uses pure silver usually in the form of a wire to bond metals.

Brazing uses brass with a flux. Silversolder is like brazing but not really the same. Also its stronger. It holds the joints much better.

I refer you to this article from Wikipedia. Brazing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_soldering) Look under silver brazing.

The initial search term from the front page was "silver soldering"

From the article, the following are common filler material for BRAZING:

* Aluminum-silicon
* Copper
* Copper-phosphorus
* Copper-zinc (brass)
* Gold-silver
* Nickel alloy
* Silver[1][7]
* Amorphous brazing foil using nickel, iron, copper, silicon, boron, phosphorus, etc.

Yes, I have silver soldered, Electronic soldered, plumbing soldered and welded materials. Silver soldering requires a flux too.