Very ornate little tray with non-English lettering and tiny hallmark

4" X 8" tray, looks like someone spilled makeup on it or used some kind of pasty polish and didn't get it out of the cracks. There's no 925 mark anywhere and it doesn't feel or sound like silver but then I'm more used to coins than other metal things. It does have a silver-like toning and up-close the details look handmade, which would be a crazy amount of work for a mere silverplate object, so I really don't know. I'm also so unfamiliar with any Eastern alphabets I don't know which way is 'up' so I'm showing it both ways--does anyone even know which language this is? That would be a good start at least. And then there's the tiny hallmark in the soldering, at one end of the tray, looks stamped in.
Any information appreciated greatly.

 

There are a few here who can help with Asian and Middle Eastern languages, who should be along in due time! But it is a beautifully ornate little tray!!!!!

 

The centre script looks like a tughra, which is Turkish, but the tray looks more Persian to me. The wee letter is a T. MAy well be silver. I suspect made in India, or up on the borders for a non Indian market.

 

It is gorgeous, Audrey. Love it.

It is a script I, the Dutch mark for 'inlands zilver', native silver below the Dutch legal fineness of .833.
The mark was introduced mainly to support silversmiths in the Dutch East Indies, and used from 1906-1953.
Since few Dutch write Arabic, I assume this is from the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), and the script is Jawi, Javanese written in Arabic script. Jawi was also used in Sumatra for Sumatran languages, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was a Sumatran tray.

@Silver Wolf , can you read what it says? Or is it a Sumatran language, you think?

The presence of the script I mark on an Indonesian piece dates it between 1906 and 1949. The silver content is probably ca .800.

 

These two are Sumatran, the bowl is typical for silver from the city of Palembang, which could be where your tray is from too:

 

Wow, knowing the language and what it says would be great but I can't believe you knew the hallmark. When I tried googling Eastern hallmarks, Middle Eastern hallmarks and Indian hallmarks (because I thought it could be Indian), I strained my eyes looking at so many images, then I saw that there was a BOOK on hallmarks that looked as thick as a bible, so I figured it was probably a lost cause, and this tray is likely just junk from Pier One anyway. So from what you're saying it's already sounding finer and older than I would have guessed! Do you agree the designs look hand-tooled (carved?) up close?

 

Wait are you sure it's not a 'J'? I just found this
https://www.925-1000.com/Fnetherlands_Date_Code.html

 

DOH! I should have stayed on the page a little longer: J was just the footnote item, and when you read that YES it says that symbol is for the letter I and all the details you described, though not specific to Indonesia.

 

I have a bit of a headstart, I am Dutch.

Ah, there are things I know....

In the late 19th century, the Dutch government introduced the so-called 'Ethical Politics', especially for Indonesia. Part of it entailed special support for Indonesian culture and crafts. This mark was a result, a way of facilitating the sale of Indonesian silver below the legal fineness in the Netherlands.

Silver Wolf can read Jawi, I hope he can read this too.

 

Well now I feel bad for not including the metric measurements, ha! I did for the cauldron in my other post, though.

 

Which I know nothing about.

 

Oh, it's in this same forum, probably right above or below this post (made both this morning). The cauldron is the opposite of this tray, LOL. BIG AND NOT ORNATE, but much older, allegedly.

 

By they way, your coins are (overall) my absolute favorite of all nations. Not the designs really; they're mostly just dead leaders and numbers, same as ours and lots of counties, but whatever alloy mixtures were used are soooo beautiful and age so gracefully.

 

I meant I can't tell you anything about the cauldron.

Why thank you, how nice. They are minted when the leaders (queens and kings) are alive, but no one lives forever, right?
I have a lovely bib necklace made of Dutch East Indies coins, btw. It has also aged gracefully.

 

Bumping for anyone who can tell what language the lettering is and what it says.

 

@Silver Wolf ? Are you awake yet?

 

nooo..i can't read jawi AJ!!...don't this one looks like persian?

 

Not with the Dutch script I mark.
Thanks for looking anyway, S Wolf.

 

Well the amount of information already generously given here is so much more than I knew before, and I so appreciate it. THANK YOU!