Victorian pierced earrings - anyone know which/were/what this letter or date code is?

I think it's a British date mark, but the earrings appear to be gold-filled, so no hallmarks. No maker's mark either. The mark is an uppercase A, and that earring design seems to date to the 1880s or 1890s. The question is... which city is that, if any?

 

I don't think that's a Brit hallmark or part of one, even. I've seen our stuff with just a lion and an assay office, but never just a date letter. And if they're GF, they'd not even have that. No clue who, though. Sorry!

 

I don't know what Schaumgold is in English - gold foil ? are they hollow or filled with putty ? the Germans used that very much during victorian time.

 

They're partly hollow and partly gold around what looks like a dark core. Schaumgold is probably pinchbeck, a gold-colored metal alloy with no gold in it. Gold-filled is sometimes called Amerikaner Metall in German.

 

Schaumgold is real gold, but hollow; made of foil-formed pipes. very delicate and sometimes filled with putty to give it stability.
Amerikaner Metall is only gold-plated, but so thin that it is forbidden to sell it in certain countries.

 

Gorgeous earrings.

That back to front hook is mostly seen on antique Continental European earrings.
The A is the mark for Vienna, Austria, 1866-1872. That Algerian knot design was already popular at the time.
Ideally there should be an assay mark for the fineness, but gold and silver weren't always assayed.
Austro-Hungarian gold is generally of .920, .840 or .580 fineness. That is the same for hollow sheet gold with a resin filling, which is what your earrings probably are.

I agree, Schaumgold is real gold, although even German jewellery and antiques sites seem to be confused about it. Which means it sometimes sells for very nice prices.
The Schaumgold jewellery I've bought from German and Austrian sellers over the years is hollow sheet gold jewellery, sometimes filled with resin or putty. A technique that was used all over the world in the 19th century, when gold was much more expensive.
Many of mine are not marked, but test in the 14 to 20k range. Some are hollow, not filled. In the case of brooches and pendants, some are backed with a thick sheet of silver for stability.
In other countries Schaumgold jewellery would usually just be sold as gold or silver-backed gold (if applicable), without any specification as to the technique.

 

first I thought the A might be for Austria, but there's the class of gold missing (1/2/3). other possibility would be a simplified import mark for items with no space for the whole mark, but didn't find anything till now.
http://www.lickl.net/2h/punzen.pdf

 

Thanks guys. First things first, acid test them. Then worry about it. I was originally going to melt these but they were funny-looking enough to go digging and proceed to confusion. I'm betting these really are Viennese; it would make sense of the construction.

 

Please don't melt them, send them to me instead.

The mark is for Vienna, 1866-1872, not just the fact that it is an A, but also the font and the shape of the cartouche.

 

let's hope it's gold. the A would be Vienna around 1866, but silver.

 

The A was used for all precious metal objects, just like the other town marks. Town marks are for the towns, in this case Vienna, it doesn't specify the metal or fineness.

 

They do need some repair; one of the original solder points came unmoored, but the whole earring is there and can't actually come apart.

 

Even 19th century earrings that need some repair can make a pretty penny. You can test them for gold fineness, and see if it is worth getting them repaired.

 

I'd probably list as is and let the buyer's jeweler worry about it.