How do you set about actually buying silver? In fact how do you know that it is silver at all, and not white metal?

If your preference is specifically old silver, these will be sold by the piece rather than by weight. Normal day-to-day variations in the silver bullion prices will not be reflected in these ornaments. The point of acquiring one of these is the design rather than the purity, so it is meaningless for the buyer to insist on being shown a similar design with a higher or lower percentage of silver. After all the design may not be in production any longer and fashion trends change too!
Or you want a new piece bearing a traditional design. These are much easier to come by, being made in vast quantities in such centres as Kolhapur (Maharashtra), Hathras (UP), Salem (Tamil Nadu) and Rajkot (Gujrat). They are usually lighter and less chunky than old pieces, although this is a rule-of-the-thumb, and not a rigid fact. You are well within your rights to know what percentage of silver the piece contains. A reliable dealer would tell you straight away.
n the last decade, India has become a huge exporter of sterling silver jewellery. Not bad for a country which doesn't mine an ounce of the metal itself. All of this is designed with the western wearer in mind, and made entirely by hand. It is India's competitive pricing owing to comparatively cheap skilled craftsmanship which gives it an edge over other South Asian countries which make silver jewellery entirely on machines.
Most of this type of jewellery is a take-off on traditional styles. It is sold by a few dealers in the domestic market and is always of sterling silver, that is to say, it has the highest possible percentage of silver - 92.5 percent. Sterling silver is always stamped with a tiny impression to that effect on the reverse side. As it is a criminal offence to stamp anything less than sterling silver, you can be sure that buying a piece of jewellery with this stamp means that it is in fact pure silver.