My Grandmom's 1940's Flatware, but is it silver

[tgvas]

All I know is that by these markings it must be German,



And here's the pattern, sorry for the color, lousy lighting.



They purchased it in Argentina in about 1947.

One store said it was sterling 90% but I'm not so sure.
I know there was Brazil Silver there at the time, a mix of alloys, but nothing I have found comes close to the pattern, or to the quality as far as I know..., which is veeeery little.

[Hose_dk]

cannot help much but its silver.

[tgvas]

cannot help much but its silver.

Well, that does help, thanks for replying! :)

[tgvas]

If anybody has info on this flatware or what it is, it would be wonderful.
All we know is the following.

It was purchased in about 1947 in Buenos Aires by my grandparents who were stationed there for Westinghouse.

3 people have confirmed it is sterling, plus Hose_DK here suggested the same.

It has the typical post 1886 German marks of the crescent crown,

thanks for everyone who viewed my post,

[tgvas]

More Photos.

[silverly]

Sterling is 925/1000 pure silver, and yours is solid silver 900/1000 pure silver. That looks like a great set of silver!

[tgvas]

Sterling is 925/1000 pure silver, and yours is solid silver 900/1000 pure silver. That looks like a great set of silver!

Thanks, I love it, have no intention of ever selling, some things just need to stay in the family so hopefully it will be handed down to the kids.

But any help from anyone in finding out what it actually is, I'll be grateful.....

[Bahner]

Hello, just a very wild guess - the marks on the blade and on the handles remind me of the the ones used by German maker Wilhelm Wolff, which since 1929 had a branch under the name of Wolffmetal in Sao Paulo to serve the South American market. I wonder whether he is the maker, which could explain the combination of German marks and the unusual fineness of 900 (not very common in Germany). Regards, Bahner

[tgvas]

Hello, just a very wild guess - the marks on the blade and on the handles remind me of the the ones used by German maker Wilhelm Wolff, which since 1929 had a branch under the name of Wolffmetal in Sao Paulo to serve the South American market. I wonder whether he is the maker, which could explain the combination of German marks and the unusual fineness of 900 (not very common in Germany). Regards, Bahner

That sounds promising! I'll look into that, seems right since they purchased it in Argentina in about '47 and my grandmother's taste was meticulous and fussy bless her heart.

Thanks Bahner. :)

[dognose]

Trev.

[tgvas]

Trev.

Wow, you are all so great, thanks!

[tgvas]

So far, it looks as if Wolf made and may still produce the stainless steal blades for the knives, the INOX apparently means Stainless Steal in Brazilian,

this is almost like getting online to look up the family tree, kind of intriguing.

[DianaGaleM]

The INOX mark was used on a lot of German-made flatware, not just by one manufacturer. It's a general term meaning "inoxidable," in other words, stainless steel, and of course, it would apply only to the knife blades. Silverware manufacturers very often bought the stainless steel blades from a specialist in the making of knives.

The 900/000 definitely means the piece is 90% silver, just short of the English designation, Sterling, at 92.5%. In Germany, the legal minimum for solid silver ("echtsilber") was 800, which is by far the most common purity found, so you have a real "find" with 900 silver. The other 10-20% was usually copper.

I'm a collector of German silver, and I'm finding a lot of pre-WWII pieces currently being sold at online auctions by sellers in South America. Obviously, this was silver brought to South America by Germans in the wake of WWII. So, I don't think you need to look for some Brazilian manufacturer here. This set was probably brought to Brazil from Germany by its previous owner in the 1930s or '40s.

[tgvas]

thank you Diana, that was extremely helpful

[DianaGaleM]

You're very welcome. You certainly have a family heirloom worth cherishing and handing down.

If you periodically keep doing web image searches on

wolff pforzheim silber besteck

you may someday pick up an image of your pattern, one that tells you its name.

Good hunting,
Diana