I came across as old flower vase from 1934. The engraving on it says its a prize for 10th place in a garden contest. It looks like it could be sterling or some kind of silver but its hard to see the hallmarks. Anybody have any info on the hallmarks? Thanks.
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First, this is from the U.S. The T.W. Wood & Sons company, in fact, is still in the seed business in Richmond, VA.
So, if it’s from the U.S., if it were silver, it would have the word STERLING plainly marked on it somewhere. If you’re not seeing that, it isn’t silver. But even American sterling doesn’t ever have hallmarks, because there were never any guild halls in the U.S., and there has never been any sort of official organization that guarantees the purity of silver.
But there’s probably no need to engage in an exhaustive examination. Think about it: in the depths of the Great Depression, would any business, as part of a sales promotion, be handing out solid silver trophies for the winners of a gardening competition? Even for 1st Prize, that would be quite astonishing, but for 10th?! 
My money would be on “pot metal,” not even one of the more exalted alloys.
Can you show a picture of the entire bottom? Judging by the yellow color, it’s 800 or 833 silver. The markings you showed appear to be ideograms, probably Chinese, but there are Western writings as well.
Yes, I’m sure the T.W. Woods company was importing Chinese coin silver vases in the 1930’s, to give out to the person who grew the largest turnip in Henrico County in 1934. Yes, that must be it.
I have uploaded some more photos of the bottom. Thanks.
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Thanks for the joke. When you want an item to give as a gift, do you go to a store or do you prefer to look abroad for something to import directly? China was a major exporter of silver items. The pieces were marked with the manufacturer’s ideogram and the exporter’s initials (in the Western alphabet).
When silver turns yellow it is a bit of a pain to clean. I have had to use lemon juice a few times to get all the yellow out. An easy way to clean this item is to place it in a container with enough boiled water to cover the object, a good piece of aluminum foil and a little baking soda and leave it for about 15 minutes.