Filigree brooch

British Silver What is it?
1

Hello! I’ve just become the owner of a lovely filigree flower brooch, but I have no idea what the mark is on it. The woman who owned it was a British woman who had moved to Australia after the war, and apparently it could have been her mother’s before hers. She died recently and was well into her late 80s, so hopefully that might help out :slight_smile: Anyway I took a photo, it’s really big so I’ll just link it here.

liedra.net/misc/brooch.jpg

liedra.net/misc/brooch2.jpg

liedra.net/misc/brooch3.jpg

Sadly I can’t see any particular mark, except for the 800 purity mark. But I was wondering if the odd blemish to the side could have been some sort of mark, or if anyone knows anything about these sorts of brooches, that’d be nice! I’m just interested in the history of it, since it’s so pretty and might help me to find out a bit about my grandmother-in-law :slight_smile:

Thanks for any help.

2

Hi there and thanks for joining us. The 800 mark suggests it may be German or Austrian and the "blemish’ to the right of the 800 would be an appropriate spot for a maker’s and/or location (town) mark. A close-up of the “blemish” would be helpful.

Do any of our other readers have any ideas?

Regards,

Uncle Vic

3

Thanks, uncle vic! I’ll try to get a better photograph of the “blemish” but even with the naked eye it doesn’t seem to make much of anything recognisable. I’m going to a place with a large magnifier tonight, so I’ll have a closer look (and try to take a picture).

4

I’ve taken a look at it under a microscope, and unless I want to start looking for pictures like a cloud, there’s nothing really recognisable in it. It could have a dog or horse head facing away from the 800 mark. However, interestingly, on the other side of the “stem” of the flower, in the flat part under where the 800 is marked, is a very finely scratched on “139” There’s possibly a horizontal line over the 3 as well. I couldn’t make it out with the naked eye until I’d looked under the microscope, but it’s very recognisable under the 'scope. It looks like it was scratched on rather than stamped, too.

5

Sounds like if there was ever a maker’s mark it has rubbed off over the years. The number scratched on is almost certainly after the fact done by either a retailer as an inventory number or an identification mark by an owner. We will probably never know who made it and exactly where & when.

Regards,

Uncle Vic

6

Thanks very much, Uncle Vic :slight_smile: And thanks for the wonderful site, it’s great to know this exists!