www.925-1000.com

Hello!!
Can anyone help me with identification of production, the country of origin and purity of silver?
is a beautiful box decorated with the 2 hallmarks.
Thank you.

Welcome to the Forum.

It is not from China, Japan, or Korea.

It looks Middle Eastern to me, or perhaps northern Indian. At first I thought the pictorial mark was the Iraqi national mark (see the World Hallmarks page), but it does not seem to be a match. A close-up photo of the marks would be helpful.

Hopefully someone else will have a more definitive answer.

Regards
DR

Thanks DR for the information.
Any info about the purity?
Another photo with the marks.

Latin letters and pictorial mark hardly to be struck in Middle East. Try Yogya silver - Djokjazilver (Indonesia).
http://www.925-1000.com/a_yogya.html

Thank you, Trev, for posting a much clearer image of the marks.

I believe the second mark to be the lion found on the Sinhala or lion flag of Sri Lanka. Another version of this mark appears on a tray that is definitely from Sri Lanka, insofar as the tray itself is in the shape of the island of Sri Lanka, and it has a personal inscription from the early 1950s tying it to Sri Lanka.

There seem to be a few versions of this Sri Lankan lion mark, so I would suppose it is a geographical or national mark applied by the manufacturer and not a purity mark per se. I would guess it came into use around the mid-twentieth century, after the end of the Raj. Ceylonese silver produced in the colonial period seems to have been mostly unmarked and much more finely finished.

Furthermore, the same mark, KAA, appears on another dish with the same circle of animal motifs that is claimed to be from Sri Lanka.This design of various animals in concentric circles, much abbreviated on this box, apparently refers to a large carved moonstone at the Anuradhapura palace.

As for the question of purity, it always seems pointless to discuss where Asian silver is concerned. If purity really matters to the OP, then s/he can have the item in question tested by any number of methods, none yielding such absolutely definitive results as the melting pot. If the OP does test the piece, hopefully s/he will share such results with the Forum.

Regards,

DR

Thank you all for helping me.
Is a Sri Lanka mark.
Have a nice day!!

I know that this is an old post but the KAA which appears on some fine Sri Lankan brass and silver items has intrigued me for some time.

I suspect that KAA stands for the Kandyan Arts Association which was established in 1882 to support traditional craft workers in Ceylon.

It is still in existence and has its own website. There is also a wiki page.

The British Museum has a short reference to its early days at https://blog.britishmuseum.org/collecting-histories/

Hope this may be of interest to some members.

Damon

Hi Damon,

Many thanks for updating this topic with the excellent information, it's very much appreciated.

Trev.