Please help ID French maker's mark on knives
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cgonzalez100
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2016 9:44 pm
Please help ID French maker's mark on knives
Greetings, I would greatly appreciate help in identifying the silversmith mark on these knives. They are marked on the blades with the Minerve 1st titre for .950, but I am struggling to find the silversmith. Appears to be initials AC. I cannot decipher the symbols above and below the initials. Thank you
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vervenesilver
- Posts: 34
- Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2021 11:37 am
Re: Please help ID French maker's mark on knives
Etienne Auguste Courtois
Re: Please help ID French maker's mark on knives
@vervenesilver
Could you tell us why you attributed this mark to Courtois? Courtois’ symbol is a little boat above the initials AC, and a pellet beneath: “une nacelle au-dessus des initiales, un point au-dessous” The mark shown doesn’t correspond to this.
Please clarify.
See Arminjon, v. I, no. 00088, p. 53.
Regards.
Could you tell us why you attributed this mark to Courtois? Courtois’ symbol is a little boat above the initials AC, and a pellet beneath: “une nacelle au-dessus des initiales, un point au-dessous” The mark shown doesn’t correspond to this.
Please clarify.
See Arminjon, v. I, no. 00088, p. 53.
Regards.
Re: Please help ID French maker's mark on knives
I agree with JayT; this is not Courtois’ mark.
Rather, it is the mark of Pierre Auguste Chevalier - AC with a coin above and an acorn below – as recorded in Arminjon v. II, mark 94. He registered the mark twice: first on 12 Jan 1840 at 15 rue des Menetriers, cancelled 23 Feb 1846, and next 12 Mar 1846 at 54 rue Quincampoix, cancelled 7 Feb 1865. Arminjon records him as a cane mounter and silversmith, and he is listed in directories of the 1840s and 50s as an orfevre-coutelier (silver cutler) and maker of flatware.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to identify which of the several Pierre Auguste Chevaliers in Paris at the time he is. Oddly enough, Arminjon lists another Pierre Auguste Chevalier, a jeweler at 16 rue de Montmorency, who registered a completely different mark – PC with an auger – on 24 Jun 1843, cancelled 15 Jun 1847. (See Arminjon II, no. 3408) This Pierre Auguste Chevalier was born on 6 Jan 1813in Moutiers-au-Porche, Orne, and died on 15 Jan 1892, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, but I think it very unlikely that he was also the silversmith.
Hope this helps!
Rather, it is the mark of Pierre Auguste Chevalier - AC with a coin above and an acorn below – as recorded in Arminjon v. II, mark 94. He registered the mark twice: first on 12 Jan 1840 at 15 rue des Menetriers, cancelled 23 Feb 1846, and next 12 Mar 1846 at 54 rue Quincampoix, cancelled 7 Feb 1865. Arminjon records him as a cane mounter and silversmith, and he is listed in directories of the 1840s and 50s as an orfevre-coutelier (silver cutler) and maker of flatware.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to identify which of the several Pierre Auguste Chevaliers in Paris at the time he is. Oddly enough, Arminjon lists another Pierre Auguste Chevalier, a jeweler at 16 rue de Montmorency, who registered a completely different mark – PC with an auger – on 24 Jun 1843, cancelled 15 Jun 1847. (See Arminjon II, no. 3408) This Pierre Auguste Chevalier was born on 6 Jan 1813in Moutiers-au-Porche, Orne, and died on 15 Jan 1892, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, but I think it very unlikely that he was also the silversmith.
Hope this helps!