Featured STERLING SILVER BOOKMARK SLEEVE (???) Ca. 1910.

Now you can go back and tell the shop keeper.

 

From an 1896 retailer catalog:




~Cheryl

 

Oh my god...

Cheryl you are amazing!!

It's not often that I learn something new in antiques...when you've been into them since the age of 5, there's not a whole lot left to learn...but wow. This is something I REALLY didn't know about. This would never have occurred to me.

Thank you so much!!

 

Hah! I'll bring it with me next time I'm in that part of town, and tell him!

 

I've loved and collected old and/or interesting things all my life, my parents opened an antiques and used furniture store when I was 13, and since then I've been researcher, picker, antiques mall manager, and dealer, both brick & mortar and online - now 65, I still learn new stuff pretty much every day, and believe you likely still have much to learn as well...

~Cheryl

 

Sooo cool!

There's a sterling court plaster case in this photo on an 1893 ad, lower left:

 

I’d have said that was pretty convincing if someone didn’t come along and give a more convincing answer with all their fancy pants knowledge. I wonder if there’s a discernible difference in the case other than what’s inserted into it?

 

Some of the wisest dealers/experts I’ve heard quoted on the matter agree. They say the more they learn the more they realize they don’t know. When they were younger they thought they knew it all and now that they are older and know much more than they used to they realize they know very little in the grand scheme. It seems difficult to be an all knowing expert in one field or niche let alone to be all knowing in all areas of antiques.