Silver swans

Hubby's Auntie promised our daughter that she would one day have this set of silver and lead crystal swans that adorned her sideboard for many years.

As we are about to pass them on as requested, I thought I would take some photos of them. I must say I have found capturing the silver at its best was very difficult. If I processed them as mono, they looked very silver but lost some of their punch!

They are quite striking in the large version.

I would welcome any constructive hints on photographing silver - I have seen some stuff on the net, but none very helpful.