posted 12-02-2002 10:31 AM            

The key is the company mark of a musical note - I have no recollection ever seing it mentioned in connection with Christofle (nor anyone else for that matter). The "STDO" could be a short form company name or some other abbreviation.

What makes me doubt that these spoons are Christofle are the two 'quality marks'. It is plausible to view the '84g' as a weight based quality mark in the system used by several European countries although I don't believe French law ever recognized that system. If it is that, then it represents the lower end of the quality range in that system. I see this as decreasing the likelihood of these spoons being by Christofle.

The second mark 'Metal Blanc' is equally difficult to associate with Christofle who were a leader in this sector for so many decates that 'Metal Christofle' has entered several languages as a synonym for silverplated nickel-silver. For them to use such a lower quality base is unlikely IMHO.

Still, this is only tentative, a conclusive answer to the question can only be provided by a verifiable attribution of the 'musical note'-mark.

posted 12-03-2002 09:47 AM            

• Christofle did produce electroplated white metal (métal blanc) spoons and forks. Source: Original Christofle catalog, 1885.
  
• The coexisting 84 in a square / METAL BLANC marks were French silverplate marks. 84 indicates the number of grams of silver used. Source: Letter from Martine D'Haeseleer (member and creator of the Silver Society in Belgium) concerning a fork by a different maker and thought to have been made in the last half of the nineteenth century. Published in Silver Magazine, 1999.
  
• STDO could be an acronym for "Saint-Denis Orfèvrerie". Saint-Denis is an industrial suburb of Paris and Christofle has had an orfèvrerie (goldsmithery) there since 1875 -- perhaps other makers did too.
  
• 84G probably means 84 gramme (grams).
  

posted 12-03-2002 07:06 PM            

As for the '84g' designation, do you (or anyone else) have any information, or firmly held opinion, as to the timespan during which it was used, and what it actually means? i.e. is it related to the common weight based standards of the neighboring countries?

I believe that France had no silverplating regulations when the current ones were introduced in 1983, yet there are plenty of references to the '84' earlier in the century. Today, French companies liberally use weight based comparisons in their communications even though the marking stays resolutely different. Might it be all the same standard, thrown out by France around WW2? I haven't been able to find when the others adopted the current standard but had assumed it to have been in the twenties or early thirties. Now with your information about the '84' marking in France during the 19thC, I wonder whether the two are totally unrelated, or whether the others originally copied the approach from the French. I'd appreciate any light you can shed on this.

posted 12-04-2002 10:47 AM            

I haven't been able to find any books (in English or in French) addressing the French silverplate (i.e. electroplate / métal argenté) industry as a whole, their histories, the marks they used (maker's marks or guarantee marks), or the patterns they produced.

posted 01-28-2003 04:54 PM            

- Doobees

posted 02-04-2003 11:18 AM            

As for their quote "one quality - the best" If I understood correctly, he did allow the Christophle mark on his silver-plated objects, but only when they were fabricated using "selon des tchniques ancestrales" - or using only the old ancestral methods.

doobees