Featured Mystery Marks

Anyone see something they recognize? Came in a mixed lot. There was American sterling, British sterling, Canadian sterling, French silver (.950 I believe in this case), .835, .830, & .800. Not sure on this one. The corner handles are very nice! Photos taken in poor lighting.

 

@silvermakersmarks
@Bakersgma
@MrNate

 

Looks like pewter?

 

Pewter is possible., I suppose, at least from the look of the pictures of the marks. But the other pictures don't.

 

Just popping in to say, maybe the marks are Hanau?

Ditto. It looks too thin to be pewter.

 

Don't know but this came up of similar style and vaguely similar style marks. Italian?

https://www.ascasonline.org/windowx7.html

 

I’m 99.8% sure it’s silver but the possibility was worth mentioning.

 

Hanau was my very first thought but I drifted away from it. Figured Hanau many times are more fanciful/pictorial and more numerous. Not always but it’s what caused me to drift from that inclination.

 

That looks promisingly similar. I did get the feeling this item was pretty old, relatively speaking.

 

Don't know but this came up of similar style and vaguely similar style marks. Italian?

https://www.ascasonline.org/windowx7.html


I wondered if they weren’t more than handles.

 

Wow look at that! It looks so much like the one from that link above. The spoons do seem perfect!

 

I don’t have much to add from the other comments. To me it looks the right tone for silver, I would just be guessing on origin but I would say the chunky style of the piece does remind me of Italian a bit.

 

Sure does look similar!! Thanks so much for putting me on what seems like the right path. I found a couple more examples. Another similar piece sold at Christie’s in 2005 for 600 gbp. Then there’s one in 1st dibs with the seller asking a bananas price. The Christie’s example could even be my Assayer.

Based on your link and my experience with the ones photographed I think spoons with a more elongated bowl would fit a bit better.

 

woo hoo, good score @J Dagger

your research skills are amazing SIS

 

Thanks. Wish I could take credit for spotting this. I saw it and thought it looked nice but was bidding for other things I saw in the lot more so than this. Just had photos to go on, didn’t preview in person or I’m sure I would have been bidding for this too. It does seem like a nice score though! I actually didn’t even realize I had won the lot. The auctioneer confused the bids and called this one a floor win even though my paddle was online. It wasn’t until I was about to pay my invoice that I saw this lot come up as won by me. They do this every auction it seems. I don’t know how big the market is for something like this. I seem to have a hard time getting good prices for hollowware. Hopefully this will be an exception because of its age. I don’t really have any experience selling 18th century continental silver. We shall see!

 

I learn something every day! LOVELY piece and 18th century? No wonder those handles were a work of art!

 

I hope it is what it seems it might be! Perhaps send some photos to the big auction houses and see what they say?

 

I really can’t imagine it’s not what it seems after seeing a few more examples. Your suggestion isn’t a bad one though. I sent images of a friends confirmed Ming bronze censer to Sotheby’s recently and they said they weren’t interested in it. Granted it was appraised (by one of the leading Chinese experts) for only around 500-600 as it was fairly basic but I was surprised they wouldn’t have any interest it. I guess if it’s in that lower value range they may only take things in that range if they are part of a greater collection. Maybe it’s too much work to take one piece from a new consignor that’s only worth 500 or so? Maybe I’ll send photos of this one off at some point though.