Featured Probably my best items of all time: post 3 of 4

Good evening everyone!

I really appreciate the discussion from the last two posts, and I'm excited to see what you think of the item I'm revealing tonight (and the last one tomorrow too of course). I'll do my best to get the terminology correct, what we have next is a centerpiece bowl?? Well this one has a bit of a story to it. When I purchased these items, the marks for the other three items were very easy to find and identify. But this one I was legitimately stumped for probably an hour when I got home. I felt I had looked in all the possible locations.....searching on the bottom is easily the first place to go, then the center of the bowl, the edge of the base, perhaps tucked into a pattern somewhere and I just couldn't find anything. I was planning to give up and just do an acid test and then I spotted the little guys! They marked this bowl on the inside of the ornate edge (the part that goes around the top edge) and the marks were well disguised since the entire piece was tarnished.

Admittedly, this one is a polishing work and progress, and shall remain so for quite some time. I hope that the work I put into the inside of the bowl looks nice, but the rest is just going to be a patient process getting into the outer scalloped edge. I don't mind, I certainly have time and patience, but I couldn't wait to show you the entire collection. Some more details:

This bowl measures 21 1/2" from the handles, 12" in width and stands 8 1/2" tall. It is stamped 800 (silver fineness not coin) one symbol i'm not familiar with, the AL mark and ITALY. Total weight of this monster is 5 pounds 9 ounces! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

 

Wooooo, fabulous!

 

Oh, Love It! You're doing a wonderful job so far.

 

I see pieces like this called "wine cisterns" - filled with cold water and ice to cool multiple bottles of wine.

 

It is gorgeous.

 

Thank you for that extra info, that's definitely not a term I was familiar with. I definitely see items now on google images that have a similar style. That might explain why I couldn't seem to find this size of centerpiece bowls...

 

ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!! And NICE WORK CLEANING IT UP!!!!! NOW, PLEASE, DON'T tell us you got this in a thrift shop!!!!!!!

 

once again Mr N8... u do not disappoint !!!!!!!

 

THIS IS GORGEOUS!! Looks like a museum piece!!

 

A. Cesa & C. of Alessandria, the second mark is their trademark - your piece would date 1944-68: http://www.silvercollection.it/ITALIANHALLMARKS.html





~Cheryl

 

WOW
Stunning!!!!

 

Wheeeeeee! Jackpot! I bet it was sold as silverplate!

 

Wow! lovely. You must have been so excited when you got them home and started researching.

 

Hahah, thank you aquitaine. I agree it's stunning, I just keep staring at it. And all four of the items I'm posting this week (including this one) were a private purchase, not a thrift store find.

 

Thank you very much Cheryl, I hadn't even attempted to identify the maker as the mark was very hard for me to identify. That's really wonderful research you did on this item!

 

I was (and still am) beyond excited when I got them home. There's just something about big and heavy silver items that impresses me. So many items are made with the goal of conserving the amount of silver in an item, so to acquire items where that wasn't the primary concern is very nice.

 

Fantastic piece and polishing job!!!

 

It rivals Lord Stanley's Cup!

 

Beautiful!