Finnish Sugar Sifter - Ko/yT?

[dragonflywink]

Usually pretty good at ferreting out Finnish marks, but this 1935 sugar sifter has me stymied (appears to be Ko/yT), can't seem to ID and can't make out the city mark even with a 30x loupe. Does anyone recognize the maker? Thanks!

~Cheryl

[Juke]

Haven't found exactly the same mark but can think of some possibilities. First of all in the mark is it 813H or 818H, looks like the latter.

[Juke]

... also if you clean the mark with a soft toothbrush or toothpick and some silver polishing paste it would become clearer.

[dragonflywink]

Thanks for helping, it's my only unidentified Finnish piece. Were there silversmiths working with 818 fineness silver? There is a thin line along the left side of the last numeral, making it look sort of like a "B", assumed that it was just a flaw in the stamp. Here's a new picture, perhaps it's a bit more clear.

~Cheryl

[kerangoumar]

cheryl

when you look at how broadly spread the "6" is perhaps you can consider that the "8Z" is actually a similarly flattened and broadened "3"

[Juke]

I guess you know that an 818 silver fineness has not been used in Finland. I can see now the stamp better. I can see the line and it might be that the stamp was just a little poor. I guess that it is correctly 813H as the other 8 looks different.

There are a few possibilities:
1) I guess you have already found makers marks that are close like KToy (Kello-Tuomi Oy) which might have had a little different makers mark earlier (if the company existed in the 1935)
2) After the WWII Finland lost in east of Finland provinces to the Sovjet Union and information of the silversmiths in those areas are partly lost. The form of the town mark looks unfamiliar to the common ones like Helsinki, Turku etc. which might indicate an town mark of the lost area.
3) The marks are fake but one wonders why mark an spoon with fake marks as the spoon is not anymore valuable with unknown marks. I have heard also that in Hanau in Germany fake Finnish marks were made in the beginning of the 19th century.

I believe myself that the case would the number 2) as there are indicators which would support this like time, form of mark etc but one would need to dig deeper to be 100% sure.

[dragonflywink]

Thanks so much for the prompt reply! Looked at all sorts of possibilities but nothing seemed to fit well, suspect that a Soviet connection is a possibility, I'd even toyed with the mark as Cyrillic letters and had no luck (a long shot anyway). Can't really see any purpose in faking such a modest piece, and it is the usual fine quality that I expect from Finnish silver. Oh well, it's always fun to have some "mystery" pieces.

~Cheryl