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Author	Topic: Deceptive SP Marks?
nihontochicken Posts: 289 Registered: May 2003	posted 05-08-2004 03:13 PM Here are the marks that appear on two Hanoverian Pattern serving pieces, one of which shows a plating wear-through penetration on the long rat tail drop: It appears to me that the "monogram" of script "EP" really stands for "electroplate", and what could be taken for an "A" date letter really stands for "A1 Quality" (of electroplate). Might anyone have more info on this type of deception, either in general or re these items in particular? Also, here are the marks as appear on three Kings Pattern serving utensils: The marks are very small, consisting of "ARG800" and a mark I cannot recognize. The first mark would imply French 800 fine silver. However, these pieces are poorly made. The pattern stamping is shallow, the surfaces full of streaks and other imperfections, and the edges are wavy and show rough file marks where the stamp flashing was trimmed. While they are near new and show no plating wear, I feel that they must be electroplated items, as I can't imagine such poor workmanship on real 800 fine silverware. Would anyone care to venture an opinion? TIA! IP: Logged
Arg(um)entum Posts: 304 Registered: Apr 2002	posted 05-08-2004 05:00 PM "ARG 800" is silverplated ware that probably originated in or was introduced to the market in Italy. 'ARG' of course was meant to evoke 'argento', re-enforcing the 800, thus misguiding the public without breaking the applicable law. I'm not sure when it was first sold but I suspect that the manufacturers or importers took advantage of a loose wording of Italian laws that must have existed for some time probably prior to the late 1960's. A fair bit of this comes up on eBay under various descriptions, sometimes baldly misrepresented as solid '800' silver, at times honestly described as plated, but also with many amusing verbal contortions that attempt to make the unwary buyer think 'solid silver' without actually saying so. As for the quality, much of this stuff seems to be very poor as you observe but I have also recently seen a piece that looked quite good. P.S. My apologies: when posting yesterday I had overlooked the fact that the question is about two different items. I know nothing about the first one. [This message has been edited by Arg(um)entum (edited 05-09-2004).] IP: Logged
nihontochicken Posts: 289 Registered: May 2003	posted 05-09-2004 10:48 AM Thank you, Arg(um)entum, for your info. Might you or someone else have additional information on the Ramsay piece? The name would tend to imply that it is British, but I perceive (but don't really know) that British laws or custom would require more explicit and less deceptive marking for silverplate. Thanks again! [This message has been edited by nihontochicken (edited 05-09-2004).] IP: Logged
Arg(um)entum Posts: 304 Registered: Apr 2002	posted 05-09-2004 01:04 PM ...less deceptive marking for silverplate. I'm not sure what you mean by 'deceptive' here. There is no mark at all that could be misinterpreted as sterling or any specific quality of plating, so who could be deceived and in what way? IP: Logged

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