Silver Hallmarks

For this month’s blog, let’s talk about silver hallmarks. You already know how much we love silver at Sarasota Antique Buyers, but now it’s time to tell you a little bit more about why.

If you recall, last month we discussed porcelain and the hallmarks that accompany different types of porcelain from different areas of the world. Silver hallmarks operate in much the same manner. They are applied to pieces of silver using a hammer and a punch, usually before the piece receives its final polishing.

Hallmarks are an indicator of a piece of silver’s purity, its manufacturer and/or silversmith and additional information about the piece, which varies from nation to nation. Some countries even use a national assayer to verify the purity of the silver. In other words, silver is serious business.

It’s especially serious in the U.K. and Ireland, where lots of information about the origin and quality of a piece of silver can be found through its punches. The assayer’s mark indicates purity, the date mark provides the exact year the piece was made, and the city mark indicates in which city the piece was assayed, or checked for purity. Each silver maker has his own maker’s mark; typically the maker’s initials inside an escutcheon, or shield. Irish silver contains an image of Hibernia, a tradition introduced in 1730 that continues even today.

In France, the assay mark for silver is an image of the head of Minerva, the Roman goddess of, most notably, poetry, medicine, wisdom and music. It’s also important to note that the French standard of quality for sterling silver is higher than other nations’; the French require 95 percent silver content. Items of lower-grade silver still contain the image of Minerva, but are also marked with the number two. Like the British and Irish, the French also punch silver pieces with a maker’s mark.

The U.S., on the other hand, does not have a national assay system or date marking system; however, some silver manufacturers, such as Tiffany, did adopt their own date-mark system. However, American manufacturers do apply a maker’s mark—for example, a lion passant or rampant and the letter “G” for the Gorham company, or the letters “T. and Co.” for Tiffany and Company. And even though no date marking
system was ever adopted, manufacturers’ catalogs and patent dates can be used to trace the origin and purity of a piece of American silver.

Because antique silver is often found tarnished, it’s important to refer to these hallmarks to determine the quality and time period of the piece—and remember that even though the silver may look undesirable at first, it can turn into a beautiful, sparkling, valuable piece very quickly. If you are interested in buying or
selling a piece of silver, please don’t hesitate to contact us, and we will be happy to assist you! We look forward to hearing from you!

Perfect Porcelain

Chances are, you have some porcelain pieces in your home. It wouldn’t surprise us; porcelain is often quite beautiful, artful and detailed. It’s also as well-suited for being displayed in a glass-windowed hutch at it is for eating your daily meals. Porcelain is versatile; that’s one of the best things about it.

Typically made from a base of kaolin clay, porcelain dates back to 1600 BCE and is thought to have originated in China, although European porcelain rapidly gained popularity in the 1600s and 1700s. A piece of porcelain generally falls into one of three categories of production: hard paste, which is made of kaolin, quartz and alabaster; soft paste, which is comprised of kaolin and feldspathic rocks; and bone
china, which was originally developed in England and is made from bone ash, kaolin and feldspars. And it is almost always fired in a kiln at somewhere between 2100 and 2600 degrees Fahrenheit.

At Sarasota Antique Buyers, we love to both buy and sell porcelain, and our list of favorites includes Meissen, Delft, Dresden and Quimper, all of which can be identified by the singular marks on the bottom of the pieces.

 

Meissen porcelain's signature trademark: a pair of blue crossed swords.

Meissen porcelain is hard-paste porcelain that was developed in Europe in the early 18th century. Its signature trademark is a pair of crossed swords and a blue mark, and is one of the oldest trademarks still in existence today. Meissen porcelain was the most popular type of porcelain in Europe until the 1750s.

 

Delft porcelain often features a singular blue hue.

Delft porcelain is one of the most recognizable porcelains in the world, thanks to its tin glazing, metal oxide sealant, and hand-painted brand name it employs as its trademark. Delft porcelain’s origins can be traced back to the Netherlands in the 16th century, and although not all Delft porcelain is blue and white, it is most recognizable by that hue.

Dresden porcelain's trademark.

Dresden porcelain came into existence in 1872, and is still crafted completely by hand in Dresden, Germany. Its trademark, shown above, is protected and guarantees the originality of the piece, and like its sister, Meissen porcelain, it also has a dark blue mark under its glaze, making a piece recognizable as an authentic.

 

Quimper porcelain and its petit Bretons.

And, finally, Quimper porcelain is manufactured in France and often features a popular representation of the “petit Breton,” a man or woman dressed in traditional Breton garb. Like Dresden porcelain, Quimper pieces are all hand-painted.

Are you a collector of porcelain, or simply a lover of the art? Do you have a favorite kind of porcelain? If so, make sure to visit the porcelain section of our website, or—if you’re interested in buying or selling a piece or set—contact us. We’d love to hear from you!

Silver Linings

Hello, everyone! Welcome to our blog. At Sarasota Antique Buyers, we have a deep-seated love for art and history, and we’re dedicated to sharing that passion with you. We’ll use this space as a place in which to share tips, facts and news about the antiques business from an insider’s point of view, on a monthly basis. We’re thrilled to have you along with us.

So let’s begin by talking about one of our favorite subjects: silver. 

We like to buy any kind of sterling silver at Sarasota Antique Buyers, as long as it’s not silver plate. What is silver plate, you ask? An item that has been silver plated means that some kind of silver—usually sterling—has been used to cover a base metal. In other words, the piece isn’t made entirely from sterling silver; it’s simply coated with it. It’s less expensive to manufacture, but it’s also lower quality.

Your next question, then, might be, What’s the difference between pure silver and sterling silver? Well, pure silver is usually too soft to be rendered useable, making sterling silver optimum for everyday use because it’s a much stronger material. Sterling silver is made from pure silver that is then blended with another metal—such as copper or platinum—to give it strength.

Sterling silver became particularly stylish during the mid-to-late 19^th century, when it was advertised as the most fashionable way to set a “proper” dinner table. Due to its popularity, everything from flatware to saucers, trays, pitchers and candelabras were crafted and sold as “on trend,” creating a something of a silver craze. A number of prestigious silver manufacturing companies were birthed from the mid-1800s until the 1920s, and although sterling silver fell somewhat out of fashion around World War II, thanks to rising production costs, it continues to be a prized possession for both collectors and buyers. 

When we buy silver at our shop, one of our favorite things to look for is the piece’s hallmark. Hallmarks are key to identifying the purity of a piece of silver, as well as its manufacturer and any other important information about the piece. Hallmarks are applied to the piece with a hammer and punch, and so they’re generally created before final polishing. 

Sterling silver’s hallmarks vary from country to country. France’s hallmark, for example, is the head of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom (cool, right?). Sterling silver hailing from the UK or Ireland often contains a whole series of punches, including a stamp indicating the purity of the silver, a date stamp, a city stamp and a maker’s mark. Irish silver also contains all of those and an image of Hibernia, which is the Latin name for the isle of Ireland.  Meanwhile, American-made silver often contains nothing but a maker’s mark, which varies from company to company (i.e., Tiffany & Co.). Figuring out how old, which country and which maker a piece comes from is a fun mystery, one that we love solving.

When it comes to selling your silver, you’ll first want to determine the amount of silver your piece contains. This helpful chart, from www.ajewelle.com, provides a good starting point: 

Type of Silver	Amount of Actual Silver Contained
.999 or 999 (purest, highest worth)	99%
.9684 (English Britannia)	96%
950	95%
.925 (sterling silver)	92.5%
.900 (“coin” silver)	90%
Standard silver	89%
84 (Russia)	84%
835	83.5%
.800	80%
With Hallmark	Check with us to determine
*Source: www.ajewelle.com

At our shop, we are happy to help you determine what kind of silver you’re in possession of and how much silver it actually contains. We’ll also help you uncover the history of your item. And if you’re interested in selling to us, we’ll come to you—so please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (941) 726-0401 or send us an email by clicking here.

Again, welcome to our blog and thanks for reading—please leave a comment letting us know what else you’d like to see, and we’ll look forward to having you back next month!