Hello… can anyone give any insights into who made this remarkable jug and where/when it was made? It’s 35cm high, in remarkable condition with no loss of silverplate and excellent craftsmanship! The only markings I can find is a neat ‘C.F’ on the base.
Is it from the UK or the continent and 19th century? And I assume silver plated? Please help if you can…
Many thanks, Simon
Researching online I can’t find any anything similar and other ewers of this quality are solid silver. And there isn’t a single worn edge showing a base metal so, I know this sounds like a foolish question, but could it be solid silver but without a hallmark… did this ever happen??
in short, no. In the U.K. and many other countries, that would be illegal. But even if it weren’t, think this through. You’re a silversmith, and you’ve just invested considerable money producing a piece with solid silver, a precious metal. Do you now want to hide that fact from potential buyers?!
Hi Jeff… Quite right, really wouldn’t make sense. So it just means that there’s actually no worn silver plating detectable.
Any guess on its origin or likely date??
Well-done electroplating can stand up to decades of polishing, with no signs of wear. That’s the beauty of it - a relatively straightforward process that uses very little precious metal, but that produces a superb finish!
Identifying the source and date of electroplated items is often impossible. There is no consistent registration of the makers.
https://www.smpub.com/ubb/Forum21/HTML/001443.html
Silver plated items, particularly early ones are a real bargain. The ones shown in the posted cited above make great flower vases and I still use them today.
Hi Simon. As one of your responders has suggested this is a hot water jug rather than a claret or red wine decanter.
It is part of a tea set and will have originally been together with a teapot, creamer, sugar bowl and a bowl to tip the dregs into unless the tea party came complete with fortune teller who was going to read your tea leaves!
I would date it high belle epoch or late Victorian depending on which side of the Atlantic it started its life.
The absence of faux or pretend hall marks points to US Federal rather than Victorian English. Stylistically its more New York than New England.
Absence of wear marks probably means an 1890’s date and a decade later it would have been chased off the tea tables of the demi-mode by the likes of William Morris and his Arts and Crafts movement.
Silver, or silver plate does odd things to wine taste. People preferred to decant into glass which was sometimes adorned or strapped with silver or silver plate. You do see the occasional solid silver “claret” jugs coming up, mostly German silver. They are either mis-spoken for or if actually purpose made remind you that while you can get quite a decent glass of Hock’ if you stick close to the banks of the Rhine, in Germany best to drink their excellent beer, which the rest of the world now emulates.