I recently bought a "Faberge style" egg from the Tony Curtis estate auction. I know that the chances of it being genuine are low, but I will welcome your opinions on the hallmarks. I'm sorry for the bad quality of the photos - the marks are so small, I had to photograph them through a 30x loupe.
There are two marks on the rim. The maker's mark is A*H, with a 6-pointed star between the initials. Is this a genuine mark of August Hollming?
To the left of the maker's mark is a badly applied silver mark. I can't see what it is. And to the right of the maker's mark, there is evidence of a 3rd mark being erased (see my final photo). The metal has horizontal scratching, so it was not caused by opening and closing the lid. It appears that someone used a tool to remove a 3rd mark.
I know, from reading the Faberge book by von Habsburg & von Solodkoff, that all items made in St Petersburg were personally inspected by Faberge. If an item was not good enough, it was either destroyed or sold with only the maker's mark but no Faberge mark. Is it possible that this is why the 3rd mark was erased on my egg? I could not find any research which says whether these items received 3 marks and the Faberge mark was erased if he did not approve it : or whether the maker applied 2 marks, and then the Faberge mark was added if he approved the item.
Thank you for all opinions.
BOB
