Featured Are these real silver & who might've made them ?

Found a few candlesticks very cheap,cause what i know abt silver wouldn't fill a shot glass ! There's a pair,hallmarked,and the single square one (seemingly) unmarked.
#1-Square Base/7" Tall/Candle Socket detaches/Stamped 'O' or Zero inside the socket.
#2-A Pair/ 6 3/8" Tall/Hallmarked/
*Both have Plaster/Ceramic filled bases.
Any ideas about when or where made would be greatly appreciated-Thanks !

 

They sure look it. Swedish.

https://www.925-1000.com/Fsweden_Date_Code.html

 

Gee-Thanks for the tip Evely,that's awesome ! It's about time I put my thinking cap on-silver,jewelry,etc,the list is endless.
But I figured at $4 how could I lose-I'd still have a pair of candlesticks,and nothing wrong w/ some romantic lighting.
Looks like- 'MGAB'(Eric Löfman 1925-1994 but not stamped 'Lofman')- 'Uppsala' 'Sweden' '1974'- I think !? That's darned cool-once you've got the cipher it's pretty clear-Thanks.Didn't realize how specific the little hieroglyphs could be.

 

Awesome find mate !

 

Thanks Bro-I'm no Mr. Nate,so this was a real kick in the head ! My Lady even likes them,but $$$ aside she's more of a Georg Jensen design gal (him she prob wouldn't let me sell).
The little dip/curved top do echo danish/Swedish mod a bit w/ a more classic base & stem.

 

Does anyone know when/what the 1st single candlestick might be-Regency,Empire,old/repop ? All i've found so far is that 'O' stamp in the candle well.
PS-I'll keep looking,sneaky old Smiths !

 

It all comes down to taxes.

 

That makes sense MOS-taxes & tariffs.

 

Which is why hallmarks are punched in assay offices. In the old days in guild halls, hence the term hallmark.

A mark that is not an assay mark is not a hallmark.

 

AJ & MOS-So any mark not stamped by an assayer is a studio or artist's mark ?

 

A maker's mark, a manufacturer's mark, a fineness mark.
Even a fake mark.
But not a hallmark.

 

Thanks for the info-amazingly informative little set of symbols.

 

I suppose any mark that isn't an assayer's mark could be a maker's mark, date mark, production control mark, or whatever else a manufacturer might think of, but it will have no official standing as an indicator of the quality of the metal. Manufacturers have used various marks to simulate hallmarks.

 

THe silverplate makers are the most assiduous of the lot. They use tons of marks as often as not, none of which indicate the presence of silver.

 

Gorham has fooled many by mimicking the English system. People see the Lion and Anchor and immediate think Sterling from Birmingham

 

This is mostly what I see here in my area of the U.S.-a blistering array of confusing befuddling pseudo marks.
It's refreshing to see an old piece of Victorian Quadrupleplate,generally not worth buying,but at least more honest marketing back then.

 

Except that a lot of Gorham is the real deal; they just hoked up their marks to resemble the more desirable (then) British marks.

 

Yep,real Gorham sterling can go for bucks.Hallmarks-not as tough as cracking the Enigma Code,but not a game for rubes (yrs truly) either.

 

Yes, Gorham is quite accomplished in actual sterling items as well, which are marked “sterling”

your desirability comment is correct. Gorham (one of America’s oldest & top silver companies) purposefully mimicked the British marking system specifically because English silver was, and still it, regarded as a premium.

My comment about “fooling” people wasn’t meant to mean that Gorham was intentionally trying to deceive customers into believing that a silverplate item was sterling. But that does happen frequently in the secondary market.

However, they were trying to prop up their products as having a highly desirable English origin. As it turns out, Gorham became quite successful by their own right, but early on…they were absolutely riding on the widely recognized British marking system to add a degree of gravitas

their marking, if introduced today, likely would not survive legal challenges

 

While numerous silverplate manufacturers used trademarks similar to British hallmarks, Gorham was not one of them, their 'lion-anchor-G' trademark was used on solid silver, a guarantee even if 'Coin' or 'Sterling' wasn't stamped, but their silverplate mark was an anchor alone - Gorham was based in Providence, RI, the anchor a symbol of Rhode Island since the 17th century.

Pseudo-marks, whether based on British marks or others, were used by makers in many countries, and certainly some were intended to deceive, but symbols as silver marks, whether official or the makers' trademarks, were and are extremely common. As for legal challenges to similar marks today, the US has no hallmarking system, there is not now and never was any legal issue, in fact Gorham's 'lion-anchor-G' trademark, first used in 1853, was renewed in 1990, not cancelled until 1998.


1869 Gorham advertisement:




~Cheryl