French Purse Frame

[Hannalei]

First off let me say hello as this is my "first" posty. I have been hunting now for several hours with not very much luck and decided to give this forum a try out as I have been viewing many nice photos here and nice replies as well.

I found this interesting purse frame this afternoon at local thrift store, bought it for pretty cheap because I simply thought it was pretty and wanted to do a purse piece for it since it was in working order. Took me a few minutes to figure out "how" to open it as it's not the typical style. You push the little cherubs head down and he pops the clasp within. What fun eh? Well once I showed it to my Mom she said it was silver. Well I felt a little bit better about my goodie so I brought it home, tidy'd it up and sure enough it shines beautifully. I saw it says MADE IN FRANCE in all caps, there are some numbers that I can not make out even with a magnifying glass I "think" they might be "something" 0 4 0 "something" the last something has a hole punched through it where the original fabric or beaded purse bag piece would be attached and it's the same on both sides so I'm at a lost to tell you what it is. There is an initial, B, H or K and within a sideways diamond imprint there is a Star of David symbol. I took the photos in black & white as they seemed to come out better.

Can someone help me with a bit of the history? To me it's ok if it's newer but it would be nifty if it truly had some interesting history as well ..
Thanks so much in advance :)




the area where the numbering is that I can not make out clearly..


the area where the B,H or K Star of David and MADE IN FRANCE is located

[Smokanabeach]

Hi Hannaley and welcome to this incredible forum! ;-)

My opinion is your item is very recent. Nothing to deal with an old silver find. That is the mark "Made in France" which makes me think about it. A very easy and fluent way to "translate" french hallmarks is to find the hallmarks bellow (For 20th and 19th century... you can find a lot of hallmarks for the other periods):

* The head of "Minerve" (French guarantee for 950 or 800 depending on the number indicated close to the head: 1(950/1000) or 2 (800/1000)



* The head of "Boar" (French guarantee for small silver items, usually 800/1000)



As a conclusion I would say it is a nice costume item. It is also possible it is not silver at all: ALPACCA and other "white" materials could have the same appearances!

Believe in hallmarks (even if makers from Netherland from the past were used to make fake of french silver items...), in a touchstone (a tool to have when you collect silver items)! Then touching and experiences are helpful!

Hope everything I wrote is understandable (I'm really not fluent in english and often mix it with "french" expression!)

Best regards,

Smoka

[Smokanabeach]

Another thing: look at the chain's clip if there are hallmarks ;-) If nothing appears, you have another evidence that is a (silver?) costume item!

Regard

Smoka

[Hannalei]

Thank you much for the reply.
I had gathered that it could not be possibly more than 100 years old from what I did find and from the still intact purses I have seen over the years in various Antique stores. They had a lovely beaded one at the same shop I picked this one up at that I "wish" now that I would have picked up but it had damage that I knew I couldn't repair that would only get worse. Most likely Victorian Era and yes most likely costume piece but I am still curious about the markings and if anyone knows about them I'd love to know "who" used the Star of David. I just thought it was very interesting to see it. It was a very clear stamp of it too once my husband showed me how to use the magnifying glass he has in his garage for "parts" and such. Haha