Featured Need help with 2 sterling cross pendants

Is this first cross a Mexican wedding cross? I used Google Lens and that's the closest I could come, but the examples shown had different motifs and dangles. The second photo shows the signature or partial signature. I bought it at an estate sale about 20 years ago and am guessing it's from the 1970s.

This is the clasp on the chain that came with the cross. I'm wondering if anyone knows the maker. I couldn't find anything similar online.


I bought this sterling marcasite and onyx cross at the same estate sale. The chain is stamped Italy, and has the same maker's mark on the chain and on the back of the cross (last photo). I'm wondering if anyone knows who the maker is. I also bought two pair of sterling ball/stud earrings at the same estate sale that have the same mark on the clutch back as on this marcasite cross.

 

I realized I forgot to use Google lens for the marcasite cross, so just found one that's similar and identified as Marsala.

 

I also just noticed that what I labeled the back of the Mexican cross shows the front (or better side) of the dangles -- I should probably reverse them. Or is what I labeled the back actually the front--since the marks were on that side, I assumed it was the back.

 

nice chuck o' silver cross!!!

 

Thanks Komokwa--If the first cross is Mexican, it's probably 1980s or later, rather than 70s, since I think the way it's marked started in 1979 or 80.

 

that marking is poorly struck.....good on u finding it.....
the LK on the chain may be able to be found ,,,

 

It is a Yalalag cross, originally from Yalalag in Oaxaca. This type of cross is probably pre-Christian, but morphed nicely into the Christian use of the cross.
I am not familiar with a wedding connection, but it is a typically Mexican cross style.

It is a very nice one, but I don't see Mexican marks and wonder if it could have been made by a Mexican artisan silversmith in the US.
I looked in my Mexican marks book under both K and L but couldn't find it. That doesn't mean it isn't Mexican, there are many makers. But I would keep the option open that it is by a US maker (of Mexican origin).

 

I think you are referring to the V2 mark, but that is not a Mexican letter-number mark. Mexican letter-number marks have double letters and double digits.
The 925 mark was used in Mexico both before and after 1980, but it is used in many parts of the world.

 

Thank you so much, Any Jewelry. I had not heard of Yalalag crosses, so looked it up on Wikipedia for a little more information.

 

They're nice, aren't they. I used to have a few, sold most but kept one, a very simple Modernist one.

 

I was referring to the B-213 mark shown in the second photo and wondered if a second letter is missing since it was stamped so close to the edge of the cross. But I didn't think about the numbering system only including 2 digits as you pointed out (I suppose it's next to impossible there could be 213 silversmiths in one city with a name starting with the same letter).

I don't know if the chain came with the cross originally. I bought another ethnic silver cross at the same estate sale that didn't include a chain. The chain with the Yalalag cross seems to be a good match, but I'm curious about the LK and V2 marks. Maybe you're right about the cross possibly being made by a Mexican artisan silversmith in the US, and the chain is from another US silversmith.

 

Yes, they are nice. I'd be interested in seeing a photo of your Modernist one if it's convenient.

 

Oops, I missed that, sorry about that.
There are post-80s marks with three digits, and some cities have many silversmiths.
If there is a missing letter it could be the T, for Taxco. The highest TB number I have is TB-141, but there could be more. And some makers use a dot, like yours, instead of the dash, so a TB.213 mark is possible.

 

This is mine.
Now that I see it, it isn't as simple as I remembered. More an indigenous style, imitating crossed and tied sticks.

 

Very interesting...thank you again, AJ. It could have been purchased by the original owner as late as the 1990s. She was a teacher who travelled and might have purchased it in Mexico based on some of the other things at her estate sale.

 

Interesting. She chose a good one, and so did you.

 

Thank you for posting your photos, AJ--very nice. I looked at examples on eBay and they all seemed to have dangles that were a variation of a cross. Would I need to call mine a "Yalalag-style" cross, or does it not matter if it wasn't actually made in Yalalag and doesn't have cross dangles?

 

It is still a Yalalag cross, that is the generic name even if it isn't made in Yalalag. Yalalags can have any shape dangle, hearts, religious symbols, symbols of prosperity or fertility.

 

Thank you for clarifying that.