I got several silver ashtrays from an old basement. The house was in the family from the mid-1800’s until 1973 when it was sold in probate. My mom and I got to clean out the basement because the remaining family members took everything they wanted and the rest was “junk”.
Please point me in the right direction for identifying this item and I will do more research from there. Thank You in Advance !
Since posting this this morning , I have been searching through the internet to find some similar pictures and ran across this:
FRIEDMAN SILVER CO INC - Brooklyn, NY
Active from 1900c. Bought by Gorham Corporation in 1960
The horsehead facing right inside a shield is identical to that on the bottom of my item; however all of Friedman’s piece have 2 additional marks following the horsehead and mine has only a number 607 punch below it.
I have been unable to find a single image od the fire breathing winged dragon or griffin on the top of this item.
The ashtray is 4 inches in diameter and weighs 2.8 ounces
I have almost the exact same item and it’s driving me crazy that I can’t find out exactly what it is. The only difference the the markings on my item is that it says 15 under the unicorn. It has the dragon also on the front. I will take a picture later and upload it! What is it? It must be related to Friedman. We tried testing it but it was hard to tell but it is probably silverplate.
I would agree with the Friedman as the maker. The number below is just identifying the pattern of this silverplate piece. For smaller items I’m sure the full silverplate mark would be omitted.
The inscription of the Griffin (Gryphon) would be a family crest, and there are research items online to investigate this particular motif.
Regards
John
