Mexican Silver (?) Watch Chain

Hey Folks.

I need some help with something. I purchased a very cheap fob-chain at the flea-market.

It is marked on the cross bar:

MEXICAN SILVER / DH & Co.

It is marked on the watch-clasp:

DH & Co.

Is this thing real solid silver (as in, sterling, or similar?) or is it not-silver?

The lady I bought it from reckoned it was cheap imitation silver-plate or nickel or whatever, and not worth anything (hence the ridiculously low sale-price). Anyway it got me curious. Does anybody recognise the mark? Photos of the chain coming soon!!

 

There were lots of (blank place name) silver trademarks or tradenames in the early to mid 1900's. As far as I know, they were all non-silver alloys.

 

NEVER MIND!!

I found this on a local museum website:

https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/257694

Apparently, it IS solid silver!

 

What? That's amazing. I do note however that the entry only say "silver" not what fineness the alloy is.

 

I hope you are planning to test that one, just to be sure.

 

As already said, it's another misleading name for a white metal alloy containing no silver - among others, it was used in the UK by Thomas Ellin & Co., and in the US by Holmes & Edwards, late 19th-early 20th century...

~Cheryl

 

I'll seek out a jeweler just to be sure, but I have no reason to suppose it isn't. I've found other entries online which have said the same thing.

 

I'd have it tested, just to be sure; museum websites have been wrong before.

 

I'm trying to find somewhere that will do that. So far I haven't come up with anything...

 

You should be able to order gold acids and a testing stone on Ebay. They're not horribly expensive and can be useful. I use the 18k acid to test for silver fairly often, since silver acid goes bad quickly. Scratch the questioned silver item on the stone. If it comes up reddish, it's not silver. Hit the metal streak with a little acid. If it's silver the metal will turn white and curdle.

 

Eh, hard to give much credence to descriptions without identification of the maker, and subsequently no working dates or country of origin, and no mention of testing to prove the supposed silver content...

From English pen manufacturer Perry & Co., 1874:

Perry & Co., 1882:

American manufacturer Holmes & Edwards, 1891:


English manufacturer Thomas Ellin & Co.:


~Cheryl