Portuguese Silver Tray..Assistance Required

[dartsil]

I wonder if anyone can assist and possibly silverport who I know has excellent knowledge of Portuguese silver.

Firstly for the life of me I can not find a site out there giving good details about dating Portuguese silver, I am sure I have used before but I can now not seem to find it.

It carries the sitting boar mark with the number 1 as well as what appears to be a letter {i} in capital...The letter however is in question and diddicult to make out, The second mark which may well be makers mark or assay town I can not make out.

My question is can someone assist with a date on the piece and if possible a maker? It looks in style to be Art Nouvea so my initial thoughts are that it may date to around the 1890-1900 period?. Also does anyone know what its use is? Again my initial thoughts are that it is a table crumb tray, Oval bottom means it rocks when sitting on a flat surface..This is not damage and is intended to be like this.

It measures 10 1/2 x 9 inches approx and weighs 358 grammes.

A very attractive piece I think you will all agree.

[dognose]

Hi Colin,

Just to get the ball rolling. The seated boar mark was applied to large articles from 1886 until 1938. The shape of the cartouche indictes that the piece was assayed in either Oporto or Gondomar, not Lisbon. If the piece was assayed at Gondomar, then there should be a letter 'D' just above the snout of the boar, if no letter is there, then it was assayed at Oporto.

If, as you state, there is an 'I' below the boar's snout, that would indicate the 1st Standard of 916/1000, should it be 'II', then it would be the 2nd Standard of 833/1000.

Regards Trev.

[dartsil]

Many thanks yet again Trevor,

On further close examination the letter {i} may indeed be a second number 1 , so I think its the lower standard silver.

No letter apparent over the boars head.

Any thoughts on items purpose?... Until I hear differantly I will assume it is a table crumb tray.

[zilverik]

Hi Dartsil,

This is not a crumb tray. Possibly a shaving tray.

Regards,

Zilverik

[zilverik]

Hi,

Or could it just be a tray with a special handle?

Regards,

Zilverik