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Hello. Please help me identify this silver marks on a Meissen tea caddy. First mark is HO (Probably makers marks), second in a fishhook (city mark?), two others are unknown to me. Thank you in advance.

Upon review, the mark appears to resemble the Swedish 'Three Crowns' domestic control mark. However, its presence on this item raises some questions. Could it be possible that the silver was rechecked or reassessed at a later stage?

You are right. One of the marks does look like Swedish three crown mark. It could be an import mark but in that case the shape of the mark should be oval instead of the usual trefoil. Difficult to say for sure but if I had to guess the shape is more like trefoil in this case. If the hallmarks are Swedish then the first one could be BO of HO but I couldn't find a matching silversmith with those initials. There are couple with initials OH from the first half of the 19th century but then the town mark (fishhook?) wouldn't match (unless it's half of a letter from later period when the towns started to use letters). The third mark next to the supposed three crown's mark should be the date mark (a letter and a number) but I can't make any sense of it. Unfortunately the hallmarks are rather distorted so just a lot of open questions.

Sasropakis wrote: ↑Tue Sep 10, 2024 12:09 pm You are right. One of the marks does look like Swedish three crown mark. It could be an import mark but in that case the shape of the mark should be oval instead of the usual trefoil. Difficult to say for sure but if I had to guess the shape is more like trefoil in this case. If the hallmarks are Swedish then the first one could be BO of HO but I couldn't find a matching silversmith with those initials. There are couple with initials OH from the first half of the 19th century but then the town mark (fishhook?) wouldn't match (unless it's half of a letter from later period when the towns started to use letters). The third mark next to the supposed three crown's mark should be the date mark (a letter and a number) but I can't make any sense of it. Unfortunately the hallmarks are rather distorted so just a lot of open questions.

Thank you for your detailed analysis. I agree that the three-crown mark does resemble the Swedish hallmark, and the shape being trefoil instead of oval does make it more complex to identify as an import mark. As for the initials, I also couldn't find a direct match with any known silversmiths under HO or BO. The idea that it could be OH from the first half of the 19th century is intriguing, though the mismatch with the town mark (fishhook) does raise doubts. Regarding the third mark, which might be a date mark, I’ve tried to interpret it, but like you, I haven't been able to match it to anything concrete. The distortion definitely makes it challenging. Given the unusual combination of marks and the distortion, it’s hard to draw definitive conclusions. It could very well be a case where the silver was rechecked or reassessed, as you suggested, or perhaps it was re-hallmarked in another country with different standards.

I appreciate your insights, and if you or anyone else has further thoughts or comes across any similar marks, I would be very interested to hear more.