Antique Tea Strainer, marked Alemania w/ diamond mark containing CE and AS - Maker ID?

Does anyone know who the maker of this piece is? It is marked Alemania, with a diamond containing CE and AS. I'm not finding much via google. I believe the Alemania is a German mark, but I've struck out so far on identifying the maker. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks! ... Dave

 

Alemania is the Spanish word for Germany. Looks like there might be a shadow of the word Germany behind and above it. In either case, made in Germany solid silver would have the official German markings - crescent moon and crown - at the very least. Without that, it's not solid silver of any fineness under German rules that would have been active during the time I suspect this was made.

 

I see the shadow, but it looks like a repeat of the word ALEMANIA to me. It also looks like the diamond mark is double struck. I concur regarding the silver content. Without proper hallmarks, at most I would think this is plate, although when I first heard the translation of Alemania, I was also thinking it might be "German Silver" - a non-silver alloy.

When googling, I kept getting WMF in the results, but didn't find any of their marks that had these initials. Just mentioning it because several different searches were suggestive of WMF. I think they do use a diamond shape cartouche, but I wasn't able to find anything that confirmed that they were the maker.

 

I haven't seen the word Alemania used to identify german silver, but it's certainly possible. Most of the time in European items they call it alpacca or abbreviations of that word.

 

Yes, we've seen alpacca before. This is the first time I've seen this mark. I actually have two slightly different tea strains w/ drip cups, both with the same mark.

 

Hi Dave,
Is the marks on the strainer or the drip cup? I think your drip cup is a marriage to the strainer, they have two different patterns as well as shape.
greg

 

Good observation Greg. I took a quick look at the strainer, and don't see any marks on it. The picture of the mark comes from the underside of the drip cup. I will take a closer look tomorrow morning in case I missed a mark on the strainer.

 

JMHO.
might be from south america, alemania meaning the style, model or line. there were enough Germans down there.

 

... and I did miss the mark. The Tea Strainer has the same identical mark as the Drip Cup. It was on the side of the handle.

 

That makes a lot of sense. Maybe a German manufacturer, made for export? I'm surprised I can't find more on "Alemania" in the context of silver or silver plate.

 

Hi Dave,
It's Spanish word for Germany, not any type of silver. If it had Alemania Plata you could say German silver but otherwise it just says Germany and may not have any
thing to do with silver. Is it possible a company who made the pieces had the name Germany?
greg

 

Here's an interesting item: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-WMF-...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

It has the same mark, but also a WMF mark. Searching for WMF CESA MARK will return a few items -- this one had a nice picture of the mark.

 

Hi,
I am now puzzled more than ever, I never seen those marks on WMF. Alemania can not be a pattern name since the three items all have a different design. So I am now going to think it is Ale Mania, wait is it lager in Germany?
greg

 

All the listings that I've seen describe it as a rare WMF mark, but I still have found no WMF background material that explains it. I guess the listing above is a pretty good confirmation that it is in fact WMF.

 

Hi Dave,
Just to be the devil's advocate. Perhaps the WMF marks were fake and added. Just "plain SUE" gave me some remarkable sites with histories of WMF. I asked for help with a large covered cup. I saw several for sale like mine and they all said Art Deco trophies. Turns out mine was made for the "Mad King" who had copies of all his 15th and 16th century silver made in silverplate for all his different castles. It seems that in the 30s people had them turned into engraved trophies for different contests. After finding out what it really was I upped the price from 125 to 800 and it sold for 750.
greg

 

Please forget/ignore that mishmash of a post by me (#15).

 

I may have found the answer to these marks. Mine you, I'm sayin **may have.** I found a web page titled "The History of CESA." It seems this CESA stands for the Catering Equipment Suppliers Association. I can't read the whole history because you have to be a member of something - need a login. There are related articles on the page. Info on one of the articles implies WMF made/supplied CESA with such items as glassware, etc. Title and summary of the WMF article:

"New Products. // Caterer & Hotelkeeper;11/28/2014, Vol. 204 Issue 4853, p54 The article offers brief information on several products for the catering and hospitality industry including the WMF Divine glassware from WMF, the Polar Back Bar Chillers from Nisbets, and the V100 commercial ice crusher from Metcalfe Catering."

http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/92547090/history-cesa

If this is the association then the CESA mark is for that company. I don't believe this strainer is silver in any form. As Bake has said, Alemenia is Germany in Spanish. It stands for Made in Germany. As your strainer does not appear to have any of the many WMF marks, it wasn't made by that company. I suspect these were utilitarian items used/sold by CESA. Because they both have CESA on them does not mean they are a set, belong together. It only means they were bought from the same catering supply company. As Germany is written in Spanish, these items were probably exported from Germany to a Spanish speaking.

--- Susan

 

Hi Susan,
Thank you, that makes sense. I was really puzzled by all of this. Your findings are the only thing that has the missing piece to this puzzle.
greg

 

Have now seen several websites about catering that include CESA and WMF on the same page saying WMF is recognized for being a hotel and catering supplier; however, I haven't seen a mark/logo for CESA that looks like yours. Also I think I've seen a reference to CESA as being a fairly recent creation or name - like in the 1990s.

Sooooo, before anyone takes it for gospel that CESA is for the Catering Equipment Suppliers Assoc., I think other possibilities should be explored. I stumbled on another possibility, the A. CESA & C. Spa group. According to the following webpage A. CESA was and probably still is an Italian silver related entity. Scroll about 1/2 of the way down the following page to the comment written by an Alessandro Colemann about a condiment set with pictures. Right under the last pic of set it says:

"the mark AL20 refers to Ricci Argentieri Alessandria Spa - C.so Acqui 219 - Alessandria (Italy) belonging to A. CESA & C. Spa group (also "CESA 1882" belongs to this group). Lozenge's mark was used in Italy between 1950/1970."

Nowww the marks on the set appear to be Italian silver hallmarkings of which yours have none. Also none of the marks looks like yours; however, CESA did cause me to pause and take notice.

http://www.ascasonline.org/newsJULY39.html

The only logo I can find for the A. CESA is a crown with fork and knife and CESA 88 in the following thread of Italian silversmiths posted on the 925-1000 silver forum. I believe CESA merged with RICCO or the other way around??? Scroll down to the 5th message:

http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27003&start=40

***Youhoo, calling Cheryl.*** Am hoping she stops by.

--- Susan