Portugal – Oporto

[Dendriet]

Portugal - Porto 1886 - 1938

Rolltop Caviar Server.
Weight 691 gr.
Maker's Mark, Letter A
Image: amphora (Port wine?)
Can someone tell to whom this masters mark belongs ?

Dendriet

[oel]

Thanks Dendriet a beautiful roll top Caviar Server! Just for explaining and perhaps to benefit others, the 2nd mark next to the maker’s mark; square frame-shape with cut-corners ‘the sitting boar’ without an identification letter for; Porto Assay Office used between the years of 1887 to 1938. The Roman numeral II indicates the item is of the 2nd standard or 833 fineness.

Cheers Oel,

Ref;World Hallmarks volume I

[Qrt.S]

Cheers dear Oel,

A Caviar Server!? Could be, could be, but I have always understood it as a Butter Cooler with a so called revolving cover.

[oel]

Hi Qrt.S,

Actually silver roll top server; fill the base with crushed ice and set the glass serving bowl or caviar jar or tin into the ice and enjoy but you could put other things inside which you like to serve cool.
You are never too old to learn or try!


Kippis,

Oel

[Qrt.S]

Evening Oel,

Thank and yes I know perfectly well how it works.
Nonetheless, while waiting for your answer I study some more. If you happen to have WMF's catalog from 1906 please look at page 246 (cannot show pictures due to copyright issue...or can I admin.?). A butter Cooler, no doubts about that. I also found this http://www.silvercollection.it/dictiona ... RDISH.html
Anyway,
However, feel free to fill it with caviar or ice cream or...

:-))))

[dognose]

Hi Qrt.S,

There should be no problem posting an image(s) from that catalogue.

Trev.

[oel]

Hi Qrt.S,

What is in a name?

The choice is yours;
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/v ... -sheffield"
Caviar/ butter dish;
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/f ... h-silver-1"

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/o ... ter-caviar"

Bur Qrt.S is right to call it butter cooler. Thanks for your pm with;



I prefer caviar served with ice cold vodka and without butter but …
By the way the question remains which Portuguese silver smith made this butter/caviar cooler roll top server?
Cheers,

Oel

[blakstone]

The maker is António Augusto Lopes da Cunha of Oporto, this mark registered in 1901 and cancelled in 1915. (Portuguese names are often alphabetized by the given name, not the surname, and therefore it is the initial letter of the given name which generally appears in maker’s marks of this period.)

I would call this a butter dish, but I certainly wouldn’t refuse any caviar served out of it.

Hope this helps!

Ref: Manuel Goncalves Vidal & Fernando Moitinho de Almeida, Marcas de Contraste e Ourives Portugueses, v. II 1887-1993 (Lisbon: Impresa Nacional - Casa da Moeda, 1997), p. 107, mark #997.

[Qrt.S]

Thank you Oel and yes, the choice is mine and I pick Butter Cooler for the following reasons:

The links you show are all "modern links" so to say. The page I show and the page later shown in this input are genuine pages from catalogs from the past. My point is that a modern link to e.g. some auction company's site or similar is not necessary fully reliable due to the fact that it contains often a current opinion only and is not necessary based on real facts. This "opinion" or "explaining" text has been created of something that has been read from another current/modern link. It could be copied from a copy to a copy's copy etc. that had wrong information already in the first place. Unfortunately this is many times the sad reality and far from the truth.

Why do auction houses etc. so often call this article for Caviar Server? Here is the answer, calling it Caviar Server sounds much more fancy than call it a simple Butter Cooler/dish. A fancy article will bring in more money. This is the correct answer!

However, if you bother to make some research and investigate old genuine catalogs, lists whatever, from them you will find sufficient and correct information. That is why I wanted to show WMF's page from 1906. That information cannot be denied. Below you will find a page from 1910 from Alexander Katch catalog from his factory in St Petersburg in Russia. In the related text it says that all items on the page are butter dishes (маслянка). This text cannot either be denied.
Kindly pay attention to article 535½ and on the cow on the lid on 532½ up left :-))).
By the way, cannot recall seeing the discussed object being called Caviar Server in old documentation, have you?



After this I think we can make some conclusions and agree on them.

1. The article shown is a Butter Cooler
2. Do not unconditionally believe in what is written in Internet both in general and as well on certain sites, find out by yourself and expand your own knowledge.

Have a nice weekend

Qrt.S

[Dendriet]

Thanks to you all for you for your comments.

My special thanks to @ Blakstone

The family where I bought it, I had this information for which they used it.

I post only Makers Mark for me unknown, or other unclear matters

Dendriet

[Dendriet]

This was the address in Portugal, where it was bought.
With difficulty, I can read it, the paper has yellowed and damaged

?CANOROA. Oalheiro
?45, Rua Áurĕa 245
LISBOA

Nice to know

Dendriet

[dognose]

Is is possible to post an image of the paperwork?

Trev.

[Dendriet]

Is is possible to post an image of the paperwork?

Trev.

See your PM