Postby kerangoumar » Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:20 pm
the whole problem with marks - rather, pseudo marks - from hanau, is that the smiths there set out deliberately to produce works that appeared to be from earlier centuries - which would be quickly unmasked if they put the moon and crown on them. but as 800 was a standard silver grade especially for intricate works which required somewhat harder silver, many took pains to note that their silver met this standard (and when you took the object home and handed it around numerous times you would not begin to get a loss of detail)