Austrian (?) chalice identification

[karchivist]

Hi all,

I am an archivist for an Australian Catholic religious order. We have a silver chalice that I have been asked to provide provenance for. It has been in Australia since at least 1909, as documented in our records, but we are not sure of its origin. Through comparing the marks on it to marks on this website I believe it is Austrian, late 19th century, as it has a head of Diana inside a flower-shaped cartouche, as well as the HG makers mark. However I can't narrow it down further although it does also have a makers initials. Any help in identifying the maker would be very welcome.

Here is a close up of the maker's marks:



Here is an image of the whole chalice:

[karchivist]

I put the wrong image code for the images, and I don't see an edit button. I'll embed them below:

[Bahner]

Hello and welcome ! Indeed Austria, any time between 1867 and 1922, when the use of these marks was discontinued. I see the letter C right of the head, which ist the letter of the Prag assay office, so this is from the Bohemian part of the former k.k. monarchy. The letter left of the head should be a figure for the fineness, but I cannot make it out. I do not have access to literature on Bohemian marks of the time (if such literature exists), so unfortunately I cannot help with the maker. Nevertheless it should be taken into account that quite often gold- and silversmiths actually did not produce such larger items themselves but got it from a larger company and just punched it with their own mark to give off the impression they really had made this. This may or may not have been the case here. Regards, Bahner

[karchivist]

Thank you Bahner - it's nice to know that my best guess is correct. I've dealt with UK and American marks before on communion ware, tea sets, that kind of thing, but I don't know European silverware at all. I couldn't make out the letter left of the head either, although I'm leaning toward R or K. The chalice was in use in Australia from 1909 or so up until probably the 1980s, so I'm not surprised that the mark is worn. I have some theories that it came to us via German or Austrian convents in the same religious order but absolutely no documentation to prove anything.

[Bahner]

Hello, turns out there IS a book which deals with Czech artists and I had it on my shelves all those years .... HG is most likely the company of Heinrich (Jindrich) Grünfeld (1888-1952), active in Prague and known for making ecclesiastical silver objects for various religions. Believe the dates given are those of activity of the workshop, not Grünfeldss lifespan, but I am not sure how correct internet translation is. You mentioned 1909 as a possible first date of use, is that well documented ? The book is Dana Stehlikova, Encyklopedie cesk

[Bahner]

upps, too fast: Dana Stehlikova, Encyklopedie ceskeho zlatnictvi, stribrnictvi a klenotnictvi. 2003. Pardon possible spelling errors and omittance of accents. Regards, Bahner

[AG2012]

See here:
viewtopic.php?t=52658
Regards

[Traintime]

The number to the left is a "3" for a finess of .800....compare to example here: https://www.925-1000.com/Faustria_02.html