Italian Vase Object

[Granmaa]

Does anyone know what this is for, and can anyone identify the mark?

Miles


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[JLDoggett]

Miles, some observations:

Not knowing is's size I am thinking it looks to be about 8-inches tall?

The top edge looks (to me) that it shoud have some sort of fitted cover. A pierced cover would make me think it for somethig aromatic, unpierced it could be a sugar bowl.

The legs look a bit long for the body, and the feet look very crude compaired to the decoration of the rest of the piece...
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[admin]

Italian it is, Naples specifically.

Napoli is correct; this mark was used there from 1832 to 1873. The bust is that of Partenope, mythological queen of Naples. "8" is the standard, and stood for .833. (Standards 1-6 were for gold; the only silver standards were 7 [.916] and 8 [.833].)

The "N" stands not for Naples but for "nostrali" ("ours"), and was used on locally made items, as opposed to an "E" ("estero" = "foreign") which was used on imported items.

quote is from a previous post. viewtopic.php?t=10563
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[dragonflywink]

Wish I'd noticed the "Italian" before trolling around to see if old maté cups were made in all silver, made for some fascinating reading, but then I end up wandering off on all sorts of tangents.

~Cheryl

(admin note) Cheryl, thought your original post on mate cups so informative that it was worth its own thread, moved it to "contributor's notes"
viewtopic.php?p=45855
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[Hose_dk]

The legs look a bit long for the body, and the feet look very crude compaired to the decoration of the rest of the piece...

Oh no they have just the lenght they schould have. Time based opon style around 1800 could be before but also later.
1780-1840 I would say is possible timeframe.
Lion feet - qualty? dont know but very common.
That was all I new so I did not respond.
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[Granmaa]

Thank you all for your responses.
Is it agreed that this is a mate or tea cup?

Miles
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[dognose]

JAKJO has also done some great research into this mark.

See: viewtopic.php?p=44671

Trev.
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