New Antiques

[GeorgeS]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum and had a few questions. My mother recently died and among a few of her belongings there were some things that no one knew the history or purpose of. I took quite a few pictures (there are four pieces) and I was hoping you guys could take a look and tell me more about them.

Thanks!

This first "object" was probably from my maternal grandparents, and on the handle you can see "Italy" (probably can't see it in the photo, the last picture is a close up of where it is). The handle is made of wood, and the rest is silver (not hallmarked or marked "sterling" although I'm sure it is). I will post the other pieces in separate threads as the max. number of pictures is 4.

Thanks again!

[talesofthesevenseas]

What you have here is called a "silent butler" or a "crumb catcher". When you have a fancy table cloth a small silver scraping tool was used to scrape the crumbs off the table and into the crumb catcher, without having to wash the table cloth. Are there any tiny touch marks that might be very worn and faded? There should be some on it somewhere. I would go over it with a magnifying glass or a jeweler's loupe.

[GeorgeS]

You're absolutely right! I found the touchmark, it's about a tenth of the size of a pencil eraser so I can't read it. Maybe I could take it to a coin shop or jewelers and see if they can read it. Any idea of the value?

[talesofthesevenseas]

COOL!  Glad I was able to help you find it. I think the touch mark would have to be deciphered to get an accurate idea of the silver content and the age. (unless someone here has more input?) There is a whole dating system with touch marks that can often dial in the age and origin of a piece very accurately. So I think that would be a good next step, to get someone to take a look at the mark(s) for you. They can be really tough to see!

Here is a page of Italian silver hallmarks. This should be helpful:
http://www.925-1000.com/Fitalian_marks_01.html

[GeorgeS]

Again, thank you!

Also, I can see the shape of the touch mark, just not the design inside it. If it's of any help to anyone here, the shape is like a shield (like a crest)- ovular with the top of the oval cut off.

[KC]

GeorgeS - there are so many that are in the shield/crest mark.

If you are going to be into these items regularly you might want to invest in a jewelers loop for magnification.  They sell really cheap on the internet!

[GeorgeS]

I have one, but it is so small that I still can't quite make it out. It might be a lion, but again, I can't tell.