French marked Necklace but no hallmark? Help please

[Angel]

The necklace is marked on the back Made in France but there are no other markings. Does anyone know if this was common with French jewelry? My jeweler (not familiar with older pieces) thought that it was silver plate however there still are no other marks to indicate silver plate. Any help would be appreciated, thank you in advance.

[admin]

Required on French made costume jewelry that was exported to the U.S.
Neither a silverplate or maker's mark were required.

Regards, Tom

[Angel]

Thank you very much Tom! Wonderful to glean some new knowledge :)

[kerangoumar]

i would give this necklace a good cleaning and polishing as it is lovely.

'made in france' tells you that this necklace was made for export to the u.s. after 1921, when the highly protectionist mckinley tariff act of 1891 was amended. before that it was sufficient to say 'france' or whatever the country of origin might have been. this holds true for everything imported into the u.s. - china, silver, jewelry.


correction - "Made in" was required from 1914; the 1921 proviso required that the name of the exporting country be in English