www.925-1000.com

Greetings, I would greatly appreciate help in identifying the silversmith mark on these knives. They are marked on the blades with the Minerve 1st titre for .950, but I am struggling to find the silversmith. Appears to be initials AC. I cannot decipher the symbols above and below the initials. Thank you

Etienne Auguste Courtois

@vervenesilver
Could you tell us why you attributed this mark to Courtois? Courtois’ symbol is a little boat above the initials AC, and a pellet beneath: “une nacelle au-dessus des initiales, un point au-dessous” The mark shown doesn’t correspond to this.
Please clarify.

See Arminjon, v. I, no. 00088, p. 53.
Regards.

I agree with JayT; this is not Courtois’ mark.

Rather, it is the mark of Pierre Auguste Chevalier - AC with a coin above and an acorn below – as recorded in Arminjon v. II, mark 94. He registered the mark twice: first on 12 Jan 1840 at 15 rue des Menetriers, cancelled 23 Feb 1846, and next 12 Mar 1846 at 54 rue Quincampoix, cancelled 7 Feb 1865. Arminjon records him as a cane mounter and silversmith, and he is listed in directories of the 1840s and 50s as an orfevre-coutelier (silver cutler) and maker of flatware.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to identify which of the several Pierre Auguste Chevaliers in Paris at the time he is. Oddly enough, Arminjon lists another Pierre Auguste Chevalier, a jeweler at 16 rue de Montmorency, who registered a completely different mark – PC with an auger – on 24 Jun 1843, cancelled 15 Jun 1847. (See Arminjon II, no. 3408) This Pierre Auguste Chevalier was born on 6 Jan 1813in Moutiers-au-Porche, Orne, and died on 15 Jan 1892, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, but I think it very unlikely that he was also the silversmith.

Hope this helps!