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Hi Forum

I wonder if anybody can help me to confirm the details on this item I recently acquired and clear up a couple of queries which I have. I think the hallmark is for 1878, the maker was J. M. Van Kempen and Son. I read that there should be a letter in the head of Minerva which would indicate the assay office - I can not work it out - maybe somebody could have a more educated guess from the pictures?

Are the Lids of the set contemporary to the piece? They carry a strange lozenge shaped mark which is also present on the silver top of the bottle. The bottles do fit snugly into the recesses of the tray... Is the style right for this period? The two crystal bottles are just topped by the lids with no stoppers in the crystal and also no ground-glass neck as I would expect to find if stoppers were missing is this ok?



Any further information, no matter how small, concerning the piece would be highly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

c. ;)









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Hi,

It is made by J.M. van Kempen and Son, Voorschoten, The Netherlands (1858 - 1924).
It is 833/000 silver and assayed in The Hague (the c in the minerva mark).

The date letter can be either the c of 1862 or the t of 1878 .. could you make a full frontal image of that one?

Which strange lozenge mark do you mean? I see nothing out of the ordinary.

Hope that helped,

Alain
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That's really helpful, thanks a lot ;)) The date letter is a t so 1878. The lozenge shaped mark is very small but just visible on the rim of the glass mount and the bottom rim of the lid in this photograph.


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Do you think it would be worth having the two small dints removed?
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Hi Alice,
If they bother you it is worthwhile, if not leave them alone. All genuinely antique silver shows signs of its long history.
Regards, Tom
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Hi,

Hard to see but could the lozenge shaped marks be the Dutch swords for small silver articles?
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yes, you're right, it is the stamps for dutch small silver ;). Thanks both of you for your time and have a wonderful new year ;)

cath
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