Hi, Yes you understood correct. The marks were also struck on foreign objects and items that were not of the required fineness, so although one would suspect a town mark and a dateletter on the item that was not always the case. There are many other reasons why an item is not fully struck. Is there ...
Hi, The crowned O is a tax mark and was struck in 1807 on old items. The dolphin (also tax mark) was struck between 1893 and 1906 on items that were un-assayed. The crowned O was not an assay mark, so the spoon was regarded as not assayed when it - apparently - returned on the marked around 1900. Ho...
Hi, It seems that UK jewellery in general was exempt from compulsory hallmarking with the exemption of wedding and mourning rings prior to 1973. Any plain gold hoop was regarded as "wedding" ring at some point. Someone - not on this list - tentatively suggested a correlation between gold c...
Yes those are Dutch hallmarks, for export. The maker's mark is not among them, it should be somewhere else. If the letter in the Minerva helmet is an M, then it is made in Schoonhpoven. 1920 is correct.
Hi, The castle (town gate tower) looks a bit like the town mark of Alkmaar, Netherlands - or the mark of Middelburg during the reign of the Louis Napoleon (1806-1810). The rest of the marks do not add up to that though, especially not the crowned letter. The striking of the town mark twice is typica...
I found a phrase on google books where it says that the duty mark is not struck on jewellery, except on mourning rings. Am I reading that correct? And why would mourning rings not be exempt?
It is the maker's mark of Walter Lampl, NY, NY. Active in the 30's through 50's as "Manufacturers of gold and silver semi-precious stone set costume jewelry; platinum and gold Waldemar and sautoir chains".
Hi, It is made by J.M. van Kempen and Son, Voorschoten, The Netherlands (1858 - 1924). It is 833/000 silver and assayed in The Hague (the c in the minerva mark). The date letter can be either the c of 1862 or the t of 1878 .. could you make a full frontal image of that one? Which strange lozenge mar...
Hi, The marks for Hooijkaas and Hartman are almost identical for some odd reason. Maybe if you send the image to Hooijkaas, they might have something in their records. The 19th century sword is almost identical to the later one, hard to see in the image. Which could still include both of these maker...
The sword is the Dutch hallmark for small silver articles after 1955. The mark in the rectangle is the mark of a Dutch importer (whose name I can't find). You can recognize the marks of Dutch importers by the + sign.
