Snuff box or bon bon box, London

[jobbanobba]

Hi All,

I found a lovely box in an antique store. The seller only told me that the box was manufactured in Great Britain, nothing else... I was aware of the lion and leopard's head hallmark at the time of purchase, so I bought it.

Meanwhile I believe that I have identified century with help of a book. As per my findings it has been made in the 16th or 17th century. The book I used: "Silberstempel aus aller Welt", translated: "Silver hallmarks from all over the world".

The box itself:


The hallmarks:


The hallmark in between lion passant and leopard's head is the one that confuses me... what is it? Snake? Dragon?

Would be great if someone could help!

Thanks so much & greetings from Germany

Werner

[Sasropakis]

The hallmarks are so called Hanau pseudo hallmarks: https://www.925-1000.com/Fgerman_hanau_marks_01.html
To the item is not from Great Britain but it's made in Germany probably in the end of the 19th or in the beginning of the 20th century.

[Sasropakis]

Here's an article about Hanau silver if you want to know more about the background: https://www.925-1000.com/Fgerman_hanau.html
So basically silver items were made in historical style so they often look older than they are and the hallmarks also remind the "genuine" ones like in this case the lion passant and leopards head used in London. They are not "fake" items as usually it's rather easy to distinguish the hallmarks and they weren't really made to deceive people.

[jobbanobba]

Thanks so much, even if this is quite disappointing... in regards of origin of the box.

However, I always wanted to own a silver item from Hanau because it is only 30 km away from where I live!!! What a coincidence...

So, I am really happy after all.

Thanks again!

Werner

[Sasropakis]

I'm glad to hear that you aren't too disappointed. Historicist or revival style items from 19th century can sometimes be quite tricky as it's not so easy to distinguish them from the items they try to imitate. And it gets more complicated when the pseudo hallmarks try to imitate the real ones. But those items like Hanau silver have their own place in history though.

[gsmoggy]

Hi members
I would like to know why i cannot see the image of the box?

Regards Guido.

[AG2012]

Me neither.
imageshack.com requires login or sign up I suppose.
Regards

[Sasropakis]

I can see the photos (obviously as I was able to answer the question) and I'm not using imageshack.com so it can't be about the login to that service. But when I opened the thread in Firefox private mode (wasn't logged in to the forum then) I couldn't see the photos. Quite odd...

[dognose]

I also cannot see the images. I am currently using Google Chrome.

Trev.

[user701]

I cannot see them either Trev, using Firefox.

[gsmoggy]

hello re mystery box,is it possible to load new images?
that maybe the answer.
Regards Guido.

[Sasropakis]

The OP has probably removed the photos from imageshack.com. I can still see them when using Firefox probably because they are in my browser cache but not if I'm using Chrome or Firefox private mode. Also the direct link leads to imageshack front page if I copy it to another browser. But anyhow the hallmarks are those of Gebrüder Dingeldein shown in the first entry of the Hanau pseudo hallmarks page so it's a pretty clear case.