www.925-1000.com

Hi, having just aquired this little silver bodkin i am completely stumped as to the makers mark or date or country regardin g this little item..i am strongly thinknig dutch silver but as to anything else i am really at a complete loss, i have trawled the foreign makers and come up with nothing even though the duty stamp looks like all of them for every country? :)and alas i am without the jacksons book on foreign silver..
any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.
thanks in advance.

Hi,

This is a Spadinn, a silver hair-pin used by north Italian woman wearing their hair in the Sperada fashion.
These pins were traditionally given by suitors, an Italian girl in the 18th-19th Century would wear her hair down until she became engaged and a bride on her wedding day would often be given a dozen or so, depending on the wealth of the groom.
I have seen them sold in the UK as poultry skewers!

Trev.

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Hi,

Forgot to mention, if you check the base of the 'head' mark you should see the number '3' this stands for 800/1000 the third grade of silver. This mark was used in Nice which was part of Italy for part of the 19th Century.

Trev.

Hi Dognose,

Thanks for the information on this 'nice' type of jewellery.

and there i was thinking it was a bodkin, thankyou for the information :) i could swear some of you use 'time machines' to find out what you do! :)
i shall now investigate italian silver smith hall marks..could do with a copy of the jackons continental if there is one?

but you are correct... There are two sorts of Bodkins, check out:

Silver Glossary

Trev.

thanks trev, i must say i do find this all so very interesting :)
i have found something relating to its possible maker in a weird book..apparently it could be 'cappeli' from the end of the emanuel II reign in italy, 1870s..

Hi,

If you could post any possible findings, I'm sure it will be of interest.
Also I must correct my post regarding the Nice attribution, the 'head mark' was used throughout Italy. (Many thanks to Doos for translating my French version of 'Tardy')

Regards Trev.