I would appreciate any help in dating a silver brooch, and identifying the maker if possible.
Two pictures are attached, of the brooch itself and the silver marks on the back.
The brooch is circular, approx 36mm or 1 7/16 in across with a design of six thistles radiating from the centre. A crown gem fitting in the middle holds a dark smoky cairngorm quartz stone, cut octogonally, flat on top and pointed to the bottom. Cairngorms are usually a brighter orange colour, so this may be another stone - I'm not sure what. The stone measures approx 16mm or 5/8 in across, and approx 10mm or 3/8 in high. It was my mother's and the silver had gone very dark - I've just cleaned it a little with a polishing cloth, though the design retains a lot of tarnish. There's a straight pin across the back of the brooch, with a flip security fastening.
I can identify the silvermarks for Edinburgh and Scotland, the castle and the thistle. There's also a date mark of P, but I have difficulty matching it to the examples on this website - can anyone help me there. There's also a maker's stamp - it looks like FS, with a bullet point between, and the F doesn't really seem to have a middle leg. Maybe PS? Very small and quite hard to make out. Hope the picture of the marks help - I did my best with a super macro zoom on my digital camera.
Many thanks in advance.
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Help to date/identify Scottish Silver cairngorm brooch
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- contributor
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- Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:50 am
- Location: Gainsborough, Lincs
Hi aobhach,
The Cairngorms are brown Quartz found in the Cairngorm mountains Scottland.
Today the area is exhausted and most now are Amethyst from Brazil that have been heat treated to a brown colour.
Also Topaz was mined in those mountains and the local dealers consider them to be Cairngorms aswell. Of course we gemmologists don't really agree with that.
So could be Topaz or Quartz (a few simple tests done by a gemmologist can provide you with the right answer).
.
The Cairngorms are brown Quartz found in the Cairngorm mountains Scottland.
Today the area is exhausted and most now are Amethyst from Brazil that have been heat treated to a brown colour.
Also Topaz was mined in those mountains and the local dealers consider them to be Cairngorms aswell. Of course we gemmologists don't really agree with that.
So could be Topaz or Quartz (a few simple tests done by a gemmologist can provide you with the right answer).
.