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Hi all,
one of these knives (the long one) is marked with the second cock for provinces and with the maker's mark GM (?). Who is it?
Regards silverfan

Hi,

Can you sent a bigger image of the maker's mark ? Thanks

now I can add two more photos, one of the mark "moyenne garantie provinces" with number 50 and one of the maker's mark GM. I hope somebody will find the maker.
Regards silverfan

Hi
Again it is very hard to help out unless the marks are blown up enough to read them. Presuming the mark is the helmeted soldier for 1809 -1819 and the number is 50 then it is not Haute Marne but Haute Loire. Each cycle had different marks for different provinces. So 1797-1809 50 stands for Loiret, then 1809-19 it stands for Haute Loire, then 1819-38 it stands for Haute Marne. Now of course the problem is that you are not sure of the number, and I certainly can't make it out. The Paris marks were published about 20 years ago, the books weren't terribly expensive. Unfortunately different areas of France have their own books. These books can be quite expensive, and are primarily for 18th c. makers which justifies the price. They often have a section at the end, often incomplete for fabricants after 1797. Without knowing which province we are talking about, it means someone has to go through all the books, a real chore. I have some of the books, but certainly not all, as many areas just don't interest me. So if it is Haute Loire, around le Puy, that is on the other side of France from the lower Loire Valley know by most tourists. I don't even have any friends from that area, I could ask. The added problem of not being sure the number is 50, I would say the chances of identifying GM is about nil. As far as the maker's mark goes, in Paris they usually had on object in the mark, as the crowned N in your other inquiry. That is to differentiate between one GM and another. So most books will list the objects and you can search by the object as well as the initials. In the provinces this is less common, so again hard to identify the marks. The clipped lozenge is somewhat rare, but not unheard of, so there is no reason to doubt the maker is French.
Sorry but unless you come up with more info, that is the best I can do.
Maurice

Hi Maurice,
thank you for your interesting statements. So the maker for me will remain a mystery.
Regards Dirk