Mexican Hammered Cooper Tray - Treasure or Scrap

I tried to research this hammered tray with a brass (?) trim from Mexico. It is large at 12 inches long and 7.5 inches wide. I found something similar in design but stamped by an artisan. That piece was called vintage. There was another similar piece that is footed. Also called vintage.

My question is the mark on the bottom. One vendor said a similar mark was for a silver plated piece. Is this cooper plated? The Cobre (cooper) is stamped badly with an extra character or is really spelled coobre? None of this makes sense to me. Can anyone shed any light on this.

 

plata is silver
doesn't appear to be

 

Very confusing for sure. It was never silver plated. There is not a smidge of silver on it.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/144551712265

 

The name of the maker is Industria Mexicana de Plata S.A. abbreviated to Ind. Mex. de Plata S.A. Seems the company is still in business in a village outside México, D.F. They do appear to work in silver but... Among other things, they also produce "silver plated brass articles." Here's a piece of theirs marked "Sterling" and "925." Dunno why "Cobre" would be mis-stamped.

https://live.mortonsubastas.com/en/...de-plata-s-a-detalles-de-conservaci-n-2968665

Debora

 

Maybe it was wearing and someone chemically stripped what was left of the plating?

 

Yeah, I thought that a possibility too.

Debora

 

That is very like mine for sure. Same indentations and similar triangle mark. Also brass trim. Great catch.

 

Excellent research. I have no clue how you find these things out. I really think this was never plated. There would have to be some residue somewhere. Also I found similar copper pieces, not from the same source though.

This one has the same brass edging - Mexican source



This cooper one does too, though it is footed. Also Mexican

 

I think this was original copper. It is heavy, so I thought it might be cooper plated - plata. Thank you for your idea though.

 

No evidence of chemical damage or old silver in the place where the brass meets the cooper. I see by your original post that they covered brass with silver plate. This has a brass edge, so maybe there were covering brass with cooper.