Postby blakstone » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:05 am
Your very nice coffeepot and creamer are Swiss. Specifically, the shield is the city mark for the city of Lausanne, Canton Vaud, Switzerland. "1er" is a contraction of "Premier", i.e. "First", for the old Vaud first silver standard of 11 deniers, or 916/1000 (not quite sterling, but close enough).
The maker "FG" is Frères Gély [Gély Brothers], Marc (1787-1871) and Charles (1789-1860) Gély, grandsons of silversmith David-Benoît Gély (1734-1809). They were active from 1813, successors to the prolific and prestigious Swiss firm of Papus & Dautun. Frères Gély were without question the best Lausanne silversmiths of the first half of the 19th century. Given the style of your set, i would date it around 1820-30.
The arms have a motto and are properly tinctured; given that - and that you now also know the set's Swiss origins - I would strongly suggest you go to a good library and start hunting through some heraldic books to see if you can identify the arms and, perhaps, the set's original owner.
Hope this helps!
