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I could use some help with these French tongs please. They have some fun marks on them besides the maker mark. Is the one mark an ear?! I look forward to any assistance you may be able to provide and I am grateful as always for the feedback. Thanks!
-photo 2: goldsmith not found
- photo 3: an ear; punch of average census for Paris, 1809
- photo 4: a rooster turned to the right and looking to the left; title punch .950, Paris, 1798-1809
- photo 5: punch of large guarantee, Paris, 1798-1809
- photo 6: punch which resembles that of the association of goldsmiths (1793) but which does not seem to correspond with the other dates unless there is a re-punching ...
The maker is Charles Antoine Blerzy. Arminjon (v. I, no. 571) has very little information on him, just that he registered his mark 1799/1800 at 10 Place Thionville as a maker of "la grosserie" (a plateworker, essentially, as opposed to a maker of flatware or smallware, though there was, of course, much crossover). My research has been similarly paltry: all I could find is that he was born in Paris around 1769, the son of gilder Jean Baptiste Blerzy and his wife Anne Francoise Elisabeth Baudry, and was a member of the Blerzy family of silversmiths and jewelers, which included his uncle Joseph Etienne Blerzy (1735-1821; master 1768) [Arminjon I: 1741] and cousins Philippe Blerzy [Arminjon I: 2842] and Etienne Lucien Blerzy [Arminjon I: 977]
Wow. Blakstone! Thank you thank you. I would've been grateful for a maker, but all of the information beyond that was very interesting to read. How kind of you and the others who helped me characterize this simple pair of tongs.
