Featured Mysterious Mystery Marks on Silver (?) Oval Basket

I bought this at the local auction house, along with another piece which I also have doubts about. Anyway, I'll deal with this one first...


This piece came with four marks. Two on the bottom, and two on the rim of the edge. I've never seen them before. They are...

Lion Passant in hexagon, walking right, with '2' below.


'B' in shield, with two dots above...


P in a circle...

Something else...


So...uh. What do I have here??

 

Research reveals:

Lion Passant in hexagon with '2' = Dutch Silver, 1814-1953.
Purity= 833.

P in a circle = 1849!

Still got two more to try and solve...

 

Beautiful, a very Dutch bonbon basket.
The B is probably the maker's mark, I'll see if I can find it.
This is the "something else" mark, it is the actual hallmark, the tilted C is for The Hague:

 

Aah!!

I knew it was the assay mark, but I couldn't find the actual assay-hall. Thanks!

So what about the date letter? It's a P, that's all I know. I thought it was for 1849, but I'm not so sure now.

 

Pleasure, of course.
Yes, it is the P for 1849, just a little worn. Just like the UK we have a rotating alphabet system with different fonts.

 

So what's the B mark in the shield with the umlauts on top or whatever that is...?

 

The B with two dots is probably the maker's mark.
I can't find any lists of The Hague makers. There is too little information on Dutch silver marks in general, and most of it stops before your date.
I know of two books specifically on The Hague silver. Out of print, and I don't know what the antiquarian price would be.

 

Right!!

Well thanks anyway AJ for IDing the assay mark at any rate! That was very interesting.

 

Inversing the image brought it out a bit, but it's very worn.....

 

Yes, the C should be the way Shangas photographed it. The letters in those marks are always turned on their right side, don't ask me why.