Question regarding taxes on Scandinavian silver.....

[dragonflywink]

Hoping some of our Scandinavian members will check in here ~ I recently saw an early 20th century piece by a well-known Norwegian maker described as "sterling silver", "marked '830' but much of Norway's sterling is marked such to avoid import/export taxes". Can't recall ever hearing that before, and have certainly not read it in any reference. I do know that pieces by Peter Hertz of Denmark are often marked "924" and at least one of my pieces with the "924" has British import marks for sterling, perhaps there would be some duty or tax avoidance there, but just strikes me as ridiculous that it would be any kind of common practice to mark .925 silver as .830.

~Cheryl
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[Hose_dk]

Never heard of tax reasons. But I do not know everything.

But the use of 3-towers was due to a payment to the guardein. After a period where not only Copenhagen used the 3-towers - but used as a gurantee in all of Denmark - the famous silversmiths started using their own name as gurantee.
Today the 3-towers are used no longer.
And today the name Georg Jensen is a trademark for quality. I soppose that they started a process in order to use different standards. Silver but the use of 800 silver - OK in Germany but not in Denmark.
By using the own name as gurantee - they avoided to break any laws in various countries.
My guess would be that the tax refferred to the import country.
When marking 924 - they did not have to live up to a sterling standard. They clealy told that this is not sterling - at the same time buyer would know that it was "sterling standard". Thereby they could avoid any tax-regime in various countries. But that is a guess.

fact is that they wanted their name to represent quality - not the different assayers marks (including the 3-towers)
A smart strategy I soppose that Georg Jensen sells 99% not silver today. Proberly more than 99%. Their stainles steel is their main product
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