Could luxury items--such as a 70+ piece set of Birks sterling flatware--be purchased during WWII?

Question

Could someone please explain how my (American) grandmama was able to purchase from Birks-Dingwall in Winnipeg, Canada (via mail) a 70+ piece set of Birks George II sterling flatware just a few weeks after our soldiers hit the beaches of Normady? In the US and UK citizens were turning in their non-essential metals to melt into bullets, guns, planes, and tanks. Wouldn't sterling silver have been: (1) wanted by the Canadian Govt for the war effort, (2) a rationed item, or (3) such a scarce item it would have been "kept back" for a Canadian and not sold to a common American housewife in Idaho? Apparently R.G. Morrow of Birks-Dingwell, Winnipeg took her cheque for $249.53--I have receipt--wrote a nice note and sent it and a heavy chest of Canadian sterling flatware to her in Sandpoint, Idaho. Grandaddy--Winnipeg-born, US-naturalized, yet forever a Canadian--insisted any silver bought MUST be bought at Birks. Yet the question...How'd she buy a precious metal luxury item during WWII?

Answer 1

Uhh...maybe because it was imported or something?

Answer 2

Grandmama's silver may have been prewar stock. Merchants did not have to melt down their existing inventories. My parents married in 1943. My mother found an obscure rural hardware store full of prewar merchandise. She was able to purchase aluminum pans and Christmas lights (copper wire). I don't think a non-essential luxury item would have been rationed. If you could find sterling silver and afford it, you could buy it.

Since it happened, cross border sales must have been allowed. It would not surprise me if Birks-Digwell for patriotic reasons chose to not sell to non-Canadians. Grandaddy's roots may have circumvented that. On an unpatriotic note, international sales may not have been subject to any price controls.

Birks acquired Gorham's Canadian operations around 1907. There are patterns that are identical but have distinct Birks and Gorham pattern names. The question is, who actually manufactured the flatware? I don't know. Flatware sold in Canada but actually made in the US could be sold back there with no problem?

I agree, one would not expect sterling flatware to have been manufactured during WWII. The raw materials, craftsmen and machinery would have been too important to the war effort. Last week I found a tid-bit that contradicts this. Westmorland Sterling produced flatware during WWII with the V for victory in Morse code. Following the word sterling, 3 dots and a dash was on the bottom of pieces. You may be able to find some pictures showing this at the source below.

I think I raised more questions than I answered.