posted 05-01-2002 11:11 PM              

I hope I have managed to post the pictures but I am no expert at doing this. Thanking you in advance -- Sue
Melbourne, Australia
a.k.a. SUEMOKI

posted 05-02-2002 06:32 PM            

Welcome aboard!

Your crumb tray looks quite nice, and it does have a French flavor to it. The mark placement, on the front, is also a French characteristic. The marks themselves are unfamiliar to me, but..

Mark 2 of the marks on the front looks rather like a rosette. This MAY be the 835 standard mark used in Belgium since 1942. The marks on the back are a little bit unclear; can you describe them? They look like a 1, a 2, and a repeat of the first mark on the front. Is this correct?

Anyway, post-war Belgian would be my first guess.

posted 05-03-2002 12:05 AM              

Thank you for the welcome!

The third mark is a set of scales, with stars across the top. I cannot get it to photograph at all as it is faint and deeply impressed. The 1 and 2 are correct. All of these marks are on one side of the handle. The other side has those numbers, 1 927 (crossed) 6. The picture makes them look as though they are sticking out of the silver, but they are impressed. I had wondered if any of these numbers were a date.

I just cannot work out the mark on the front. One could be a crab ( it seems to be a horizontal line of dots with vertical lines going through it, plus a few dots around the edge) , the other looks like a tree or cauliflower. Both seem a bit worn.

Does this make more sense to you?

posted 05-05-2002 10:56 AM            

The mark of the scales is undoubtedly that of Christofle, the famous French silverware manufacturers. Your description matches their mark perfectly.

So, what do the other marks mean? Marks with crabs and insects are found on French silver, though I am afraid I am not certain of how and why they are applied. The numbers are the kind of marks you expect to find on silverplate.

So, where are we? Your crumber does appear to have been made by Christofle, so it is indeed French. Christofle made both solid silver and silverplate, so it is possible that your piece is silverplate. On the other hand, it may be solid silver made for export, and the cloverleaf mark is a European import mark.

I know we have some members who are more expert in French silver than I. Maybe one of them will chime in?

I hope this helps somewhat.