Swiss Information and Advertisements

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SWISS INFORMATION AND ADVERTISEMENTS

A topic for recording details of the silversmithing and jewellery trade in Switzerland.


For Swiss watchcase marking and related information, see: Swiss Watch Case Marking Information

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J. BOSSARD

Hirschenplatz, later, 40, Weggisgasse, Lucerne



J. Bossard - Lucerne - 1894


J. Bossard - Lucerne - 1897


J. Bossard - Lucerne - 1908

Established in 1775.

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BOSSARD & SON

Schwanenplatz, Lucerne



Bossard & Son - Lucerne - 1907


Bossard & Son - Lucerne - 1908


Member blakstone wrote:

Bossard was an important Swiss firm located in Luzern/Lucerne, founded by Johann Balthasar Bossard (1809-1869) and continued by his son Johann Karl Bossard (1846-1914) and then his grandson Karl Thomas Bossard (1876-1934). They won numerous awards, including a gold medal at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. The cross flanked by the two stars was the company's mark: the family arms of Bossard of Hochdorf.

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JOHANN KARL BOSSARD

Lucerne


Obituary

KARL BOSSARD

Karl Bossard lately died at Lucerne, Switzerland, aged 68. He was well known as an artist in goldsmith's work and also as a collector. His acquisitions of art works, some 3,000 in number, were auctioned at Munich some years ago.

Source: American Art News - 20th March 1915


The growing archaeological mood of the second half of the century was most notably exploited by a goldsmith in Lucerne, Johann Karl Bossard, who succeeded to a firm founded in 1775. Born in 1846, Bossard became a familiar contributor to major international exhibitions. At the Paris 1889 Exhibition, where he claimed already to have a diploma from Zurich in 1883 and a Silver Medal from Nuremberg in 1885, he was rewarded for a collection of items based on historic Swiss and German designs mainly of the late Gothic and Renaissance periods, derived, reportedly, from surviving documents and drawings. One dish was made after a design by Holbein in the museum at Basle. Bossard seems to have played an unusually active part in the preparation and execution of these pieces, which were all made in his workshops, even, presumably, to the carving of the coconuts mounted as cups of sixteenth-century design. His productions were widely admired for their authentic appearance, and his exports reversed to an extent the flow of foreign silver into Switzerland. He failed to contribute to the Paris 1900 Exhibition, although his name figures on the supplementary jury. Switzerland was then largely represented by G. Hantz of Geneva, awarded a Gold Medal principally for a buffalo horn mounted in silver and decorated with enamels of alpine subjects.

Source: The History of Silver - Claude Blair - 1987

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A. GLATOU

Grand Quai 10, Geneva



A. Glatou - Geneva - 1893

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EUGEN KELLER

Bahnhofstrasse 16, Zurich



Eugen Keller - Zurich - 1931

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JOHANN ULRICH SCHALCH - ULRICH ALBERT SCHALCH

Basel




Member 'blakstone' wrote:

The mark was used by both Johann Ulrich Schalch (1802-1862; Master 1827) and his son & successor Ulrich Albert Schalch (1829-1893), both of Basel, Switzerland. The company was assumed in 1883 by Gottlieb Schär-Steiner (b. Oftringen, Canton Aargau, 1854), but he apparently continued to use Schalch's mark. The assay office letter in the grouse mark (just above its neck) looks like "Z" for Zurich, which could be; Schär-Steiner moved to Zurich in 1893.

See: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7665&p=16326

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PAUL ABERLE

Geneva




Member 'Joerg' wrote:

PA makers mark is from Paul Aberle, 1825-1888, in Geneva since 1847.
On the 3eme mark: Geneva was one of the few Swiss towns with a system to control the fineness of silver alloys used. The marking system from 1815 to 1881 was as follows:
1st standard (950) an eagle head
2nd standard (875) a horse head
3rd standard (800) a lions head.
However, also common was just the makers initials with the standard use.

See: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=57601&p=187283#p187283

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ULRICH SAUTER

Freiestrasse 27, Basel



U. Sauter - Basel - 1929


U. Sauter - Basel - 1934


U. Sauter A.G. - Basel - 1939


U. Sauter - Basel - 1939



U. SAUTER

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UNIDENTFIED

Siders




Member 'Joerg' wrote:

It is Siders - Sierre in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland. Alain Gruber in "Weltliches Silber I" attributes the maker mark as unidentified, but probably a descent (son) from Paul Domenikus Schell, died 1716. Your spoon looks first half of the 18th century. So this would fit.

See: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=38917&p=106761

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ALBERT BURGER

Kapellgasse 10 and Haldenstrasse 5, Lucerne



Albert Burger - Lucerne - 1891


Albert Burger - Lucerne - 1894


Albert Burger - Lucerne - 1897


Albert Burger - Lucerne - 1908

Established in 1766.

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E. KOFMEHL-STEIGER

Bahnhofstrasse 61, Zurich



E. Kofmehl-Steiger - Zurich - 1929

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GUSTAVE HOFER

Lausanne


An example of the work and mark of Gustave Hofer of Lausanne:












G.H.

Member 'blakstone' wrote:

Gustave Hofer, père (1816-1896) of Lausanne. He was a worker at Frères Gély before opening his own shop in 1846. His son, Gustave fils (1856-1939) continued the firm until 1918. The "2" in the Lausanne city mark refers to the second silver standard, but it is not known if this was .875 as in Geneva or .800 as in France.

The plain style of the spoons makes them difficult to date, but clearly they are after the firm was founded in 1846 and before the 1882 introuduction of national Swiss hallmarking.

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F. HOMBERG

Bern



F. Homberg - Bern - 1906

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RAOUL STERN

Geneva



Raoul Stern - Geneva - 1919

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