Featured Finds Thread

Not a bad little profit Mike!!!

 

OMG!
Whoever posted that cherry wood 60s lamp last week...
I'm sitting here watching the original Liam Neeson TAKEN.
Guess what lamp is on the end table next to his couch!!!

 

KingofThings, that is funny about seeing the same lamp as was being discussed last week.

 

YES!!!!
wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo BOO!
There were actually two!
~
That was your post was it?

 

That's why I like Murdoch Mysteries ...they shoot in the early 1900's time frame and I get a kick out of looking to see if they have the right props for period.

 

I've watched so many Columbos for the decor, furniture etc loved seeing how the rich Americans lived. I live in a poky victorian terraced house here in UK, I aspired to American style, it was always a pity the owner was either murdered or a murderer.

 

Got some nice bits of bling today including an amethyst and silver bracelet for fifty cents which I am keeping.

I am also keeping this. 800 silver and lapis, probably Egyptian from the mark.

 

I love the way that's so...sooo hand made !!

 

Me too. The chap selling was asking fifty cents for everything he had, so I just grabbed the lot. It's a trombone clasp, which is typically French, and that fits with Egyptian quite nicely.

 

love the brooch bear

 

That looks like Gilson "lapis" glass from here, but you're on the spot. That mark however is Iraqi; their jewelry pops up here occasionally. Some of it came back with troops, and odds are that one did too. For fifty cents I'd have snagged it without a backward glance and all due speed. The only question is how a Western European clasp landed on a Middle Eastern piece.

 

It doesn't appear to be original,heavy filing marks on each side of the trombone end and residual solder around it also.

 

We're all just like that too.

 

You're both right, and possibly wrong. The mark is simply Arabic for 800, so it could come from any country that uses Arabic numerals. Just like 800 in Latin numerals could come from any country that uses Latin numerals (and allows .800 silver).
The style of the decorations is Middle Eastern. But with the Arab influence in North Africa, you see that style in North Africa as well.
Egyptian jewellery usually has full hallmarks, including city and year.
My bet is on the Middle East.
The clasp was used in cities in both areas, where many silversmiths used modern techniques.

 

maybe figuring out where the lapis came from could narrow it down...somewhat...?
just a thought....

 

Lapis is all over the Middle East, and traded to North Africa. Both areas have a lot of trade routes. The principal lapis country is Aghanistan, but this is not an Afghan piece. Syria could be a good bet.
I have an Uzbek necklace with that glassy looking lapis, the seller actually thought it was glass, so that was another bargain for me. It was mounted in a very generous amount of silver, which he didn't recognize as such either.

 

There's no filing marks, that's muck. The hinge end is clean, so it's possible the trombone replaced a C clasp, but if it did, it was long time ago. It sits well for want of a better word.

It's definitely stone not glass, Ruth - doesn't pass light, it's cold and the gold inclusions look right.

I've seen trombones on some North African stuff, thinking about it, and pieces that came from old European colonies, like Lebanon and Libya.

 

Yes, those trombone hinges were used in cities like Beirut, Aleppo, Damascus, Algiers, Tunis, etc.
I know that style with the twist-rope curls combined with repoussé shapes, from Middle Eastern pieces, and from urban jewellery from Algiers and Tunis. I have even seen it on bracelets from Florence, usually with an Arab/North African looking pin clasp.
The way the stones are mounted looks very Middle Eastern, and the whole brooch has an Arab feel to me, so my bet is still on Syria.

 

Here's another one for you then. More modern clasp, so I'd say made for the tourist market. I suspect Turkish. No marks and I've not got round to testing itt yet.