French (?) makers marks

[STEVE LAPIN]

I have three small teaspoons which I believe may be French, but I can't identify the marks. Any assistance would be appreciated.

http://i41.tinypic.com/3130ksn.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://i44.tinypic.com/11b6jus.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(admin photo edit - images too large - insert as link only - see Posting Requirements)

[blakstone]

I can’t find this mark in any of my extensive (but by no means exhaustive) references. However, I have a theory.

I think the device in the city mark is a “Bärentatze”: a “bear’s gamb (arm)” in English heraldry. It was the symbol of the counts of Hoya, as well as the Lower Saxony district of the same name: Hoya District. It was incorporated into the Municipal arms of the city of Hoya as well.

Scheffler’s Goldschmiede Niedersachsens notes that it was used as the Hoya city mark on silver, though he gives only some rudimentary drawings of it. An article in the December 2000 issue of the art journal Weltkunst identifies a couple more Hoya marks not given in Scheffler, with much clearer illustrations:



Unfortunately, neither reference has this particular maker’s mark. However, Scheffler does list — but gives no mark for — a Hoya silversmith Hermann Heinrich Gottlieb Hundertmark (1769-1852). He was a second generation silversmith, the son of Johann Wilhelm Gottlieb Hundertmark (1740-1807), and was working for over fifty years, from at least 1796 to his death in 1852.

I think this is very possibly his unrecorded mark. Certainly the conjoined “HM” is a logical abbreviation of “Hundertmark”, and the 1830 style of these spoons fits quite neatly with his working years. (It is to be noted that his son, Wilhelm Christopher Heinrich Hundertmark, born 1804, was also a silversmith, but his “W.H.” mark is identified in the Weltkunst article.)

Anyway, like I say, it’s a theory. I welcome any comments.

[Theoderich]

I have three small teaspoons which I believe may be French, but I can't identify the marks. Any assistance would be appreciated.

A 12 (Loth) is a german standard for silver before 1886.
12/16 Loth = 750/1000

old german silver have 10, (11 very rare), 12 (most frequently),13, (14,15 very rare) as fineness.
In 19. century german silver was also marked with 750 (/1000) or 75 (/100). Old Breslau spons for instance are sometimes marked with a 70 (700/1000).

[Theoderich]

probably an other Hundertmark about from 1800 - but in Scheffler is no Maker F. Hundertmark

[Theoderich]

the FHM-mark is
Johann Frieder Hundertmark,*29.3.1765 as Son of Johann Wilhelm Gottlieb Hundertmar(c)k