Unidentified Hallmark on Tray

[lolo1965]

Hi

Can anyone help me identify this hallmark ?

Thank you

[io]

Hi lolo,

I can answer your question, the problem is, I just don't want to. Why? there is just nothing in it for me. True, it gives me a good feeling to help someone out, but I want more, I want to learn too.
If you put up a photo of a mark and I identify it, you've learned something. I've learned nothing.
If you put up a photo of a mark and of the silver piece marked with it, when I identify it, you've learned something and I have too.
I learn what type of work that country or maker produced, and it adds a little more to what I know about silver and its makers. This is something that I care about.
I can't speak for everyone here, but if you add a photo of the object, then you've got me. I can promise you that I will tear through every reference book that I have in search of the information that you are seeking.

Sincerely, IO

[lolo1965]

Hello io,

here is a picture of the whole item:



regards

lolo

[Waylander]

Hmm, I may be wrong, but I think the marks look suspiciously Egyptian, and pre 1946 (cat c.f. lotus flower). What does everyone else think?

Waylander

[io]

Hello Lolo,
Thanks so much for posting the pic. Waylander is right, the marks are Egyptian and from before 1946. The one on the left tells the purity and city it was produced in, but the photo isn't clear enough to make it out. Tardy's Silver Marks shows examples from Cairo and Alexandria and they are both very similar. The Cat is the national mark and the one on the right, I am not sure of, sometimes there is a Western style date letter in that spot. Yours may be an Arabic date letter or a maker's mark.
Love the tray, not very Egyptian in style, guess it was probably made for a member of the large European community that lived there before the second world war.
Thanks again for sharing your piece with us and I hope my response helps.

IO

[lolo1965]

I like to post a better image, maybe it is better: