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Unknown Mark on silver Sweater Clips

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 11:38 pm
by zelda108
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I acquired this wonderful jewelry recently - sweater clips, very popular with women in the 50's. I cannot find the ID of the mark on the back - I have tried my best with the photo - but the mark is directly under the clip. I think there are two letters followed by 925, and underneath that in a circle what looks like MARGARITA=. Does anyone recognize this mark? Judging from the quality of the silver, I am certain it is Mexican silver. The photo shows a close-up of one of the clip buttons, the full clip with chain in the middle and the mark on the back. Thank you everyone.

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:26 pm
by 2209patrick
Yes, the Margarita mark is from Mexico, probably the city of Taxco.
You often see this mark along with the marks of different silversmiths. This makes me think they were a retailer. That doesn't mean they didn't also manufacture silver items. They could have, my references have them using the Eagle numbers 3, 6, and 183.
Since you don't mention an Eagle mark, your piece was probably made between roughly 1900 and 1948.

Pat.

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:27 pm
by admin
You can narrow that down some to c.1935 to 1948. There truly was not much of a silver industry in Taxco until Spratling came along in the early 1930's and revitalized it.
I have an old receipt from "margarita" dated 1958, the address given is Plazuela de San Juan 5, Taxco. It is for a leather bag, so I imagine they were a gift shop selling a variety of local crafts to the tourists.

Regards, Tom