Danish or Finnish Silver Hallmark???

[jaynecotten]

The only corresponding hallmarks to the ones on this necklace clasp are Danish or Finnish with letter date indicating late 1800s. The center hallmark is indiscernible, even with my macro lens. Any suggestions will be very much appreciated ; - )

Considering the apparent age of the piece and the fact that the gold background to the filigree is untarnished leads me to believe this part could be gold. Loathe to drop acid directly onto that surface to test and cannot make contact with my testing stone.

Cheers,
Jayne

[Sasropakis]

The hallmarks don't look Finnish to me. The five pointed crown assay mark is missing (highly unlikely if the date mark is there) and the round one (town mark?) doesn't resemble any Finnish mark that I would know. If it was Finnish the year B3 would be 1859 but I couldn't find any matching silversmith with initials OJ (or OT?) either.

[jaynecotten]

Thanks, Sasropakis

Also could not locate a silversmith with OJ, however the OJ in a square does correspond to silversmith marking types from Finland and Sweden as do the year marks (?) in right square [B3], which in Finland indicates 1859 and in Sweden 1808. (Sorry, I wrote "Danish" in my original post.) Guess this lovely piece shall remain a mystery.

As for age, to me it appears to be Victorian or Georgian. Would you agree with that or suggest another era?

Cheers,
Jayne

[Sasropakis]

I don't think it's Sweden 1808 either. Theoretically it could also be Finland 1808 too, because Finland was the part of Sweden and became an autonomous grand duchy under Russian empire the next year and started the year letters from start in 1810=A. But in this case the Swedish three crowns assay mark (also known as the cat's foot because of the shape) is absent and it would be very odd to omit it if there's a date mark. Furthermore the date marks from the 18th and early 19th century are usually struck with different punches (so there's a separate letter and number with some distance from each other) and not together like in this case. The neclace looks more like late 19th century to me. But maybe there are some more knowledgeable members here who can identify the marks.

[Aguest]

Chinese Export Silver has a tradition of emulating European silver objects, so although the possibility is remote, check and make sure because you might have "pseudo hallmarks" which are meant to imitate either Swedish or Finnish hallmarks, I had a very confusing piece of silver recently which had a strange combination of 18th century Danish+Swedish hallmarks until finally I realized it was Chinese Export Silver with hallmarks which strongly resembled Scandinavian silver hallmarks ::::

[Qrt.S]

Sharing the same opinion as above. In addition, the style doesn't look neither Swedish nor Finnish (or Danish or Norwegian). Somehow I get an "oriental/far east" feeling looking at it. It believe they are pseudo marks and the object is rather new. AG2012 is probably right.

[jaynecotten]

Thanks to all for your input ; - ) Will research Chinese Export Silver hallmarks.

Cheers,
Jayne