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Brooch with bee and flower in gold and pearls.
Well set small natural pearls (notched prongs, pearls not glued).
French ``owl`` mark was struck twice for pieces made of gold, imported from a non-treaty countries, since 1893. In the mark on the needle only number ``75`` is recognizable.
1. Is there a list of non-treaty countries regarding this French import legislation?
(That might narrow the search for the country of origin).
2. The meaning of number ``75`` (was it 18Kt or Paris assay office as claimed elsewhere?).
3. Was ``owl`` mark legislated only for official import or a private individual had legal opportunity to have the brooch (bought abroad), tested and marked?
Thanks for looking,
Kindest regards

A post that's worth a bump. Any thoughts on this one?

Trev.

[quote=AG2012 post_id=126851 time=1459168656 user_id=21762]
[img]https://www.925-1000.com/pics/Ximg.jpg[/img]

Brooch with bee and flower in gold and pearls.
Well set small natural pearls (notched prongs, pearls not glued).
French ``owl`` mark was struck twice for pieces made of gold, imported from a non-treaty countries, since 1893. In the mark on the needle only number ``75`` is recognizable.
[b]1[/b]. Is there a list of non-treaty countries regarding this French import legislation?
(That might narrow the search for the country of origin).
[b]2[/b]. The meaning of number ``[b]75[/b]`` (was it 18Kt or Paris assay office as claimed elsewhere?).
[b]3[/b]. Was ``owl`` mark legislated only for official import or a private individual had legal opportunity to have the brooch (bought abroad), tested and marked?
Thanks for looking,
Kindest regards
[/quote]

Dear AG2012 I take up this old post of yours, I also wonder if there is a list of countries that fall into this unspecified classification of "non-trety country" and what it means in this case... can anyone shed some light on this?

In 18993 there were 27 countries which had signed a treaty with France confirming reciprocal customs arrangements. To make a list of countries that hadn't signed the treaty, just take a list of all the countries in the world and subtract these : Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Mexico, Norway, Madagascar, Montenegro, Paraguay, Netherlands, Persia, Poland, Argentine Republic, Dominican Republic, South Africa, Romania, United Kingdom, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Uruguay.
Objects cannot be brought by private citizens to the French assay offices for hallmarking.
Until 1994 the Paris assay office did not inscribe an assay office mark in their hallmarks, since then the Greek letter alpha has been used, with the exception of the 75 in the owl hallmark. 75 is the department number for Paris, however the number may have been used in hallmarks to remind the public of the gold content, 18 carat.