posted 02-01-2008 01:28 AM            

I rarely post photos of my silver because, frankly, I have so little. My interest in silver is academic and professional - I’m a cataloguer at an auction house – and so most of my money goes for reference books and not, alas, silver. Regular readers know that I’m fascinated by 19th century European marks, and I often buy pieces for the marks rather than the items they are on. This leads to some pretty beat up items, cheaply purchased, with unusual and/or reference copies of marks: not the most attractive subject for a post. Finally, my taste when buying “good silver” runs towards the very plain and is therefore, some might say, mundane. Still, I want to heed our Forum Master’s call for new posts and his request that we share our collections.

Recently, in another thread (Maker "F S" and Shield mark?), I mentioned that lately I had been coming across an unusual amount of Swiss silver, which I find quite elegant in its simplicity. It also appeals to my love of marks and research, since Swiss marks before 1882 are so poorly understood. Only within the last two decades have Swiss marks of the late 18th to the mid 19th century been given any real attention, and I can often buy Swiss silver rather cheaply since it is so frequently unrecognized.

So I thought I would post these recent finds, in rough chronological order of their manufacture, and share some rambling thoughts on Swiss silver and its marks.

First is a nice spoon from Zürich (canton Zürich), with an oval bowl, double drop and handsome engraved cartouche on the spatulate handle. The marks are worn, but I recognized the Zürich “Z” which was used, in various forms, from 1547 until it was replaced by the city arms in 1779 (although there is ample evidence that it was used by some makers until the end of the 18th century). The maker’s mark was more problematic, since I was trying to decipher a letter out of it, but a little digging revealed that it was pictographic: a leaping fish, the arms of Wolf(f) of Zürich, used as a maker’s mark by several generations of the Wolff family. Here, the maker is Hans Jacob Wolff II (1751-1799; Master 1773). He was the son of silversmith Dietrich Wolff (1710-1766) and Dorothea Gessner, who was herself the daughter of Zürich goldsmith and mint-master Hans Caspar Gessner II. Hans Jacob Wolff II served in several posts in the guild, though never as chief. He married twice – in 1774 and 1792 – and a son of the first marriage, Johann Jacob Wolff (1785-1816; Master 1813), was the last of the Wolff dynasty of silversmiths which dated back to his 2nd great-grandfather Hans Jacob Wolff I (1630-1703; Master 1658).

I do like to collect flatware in the pattern commonly known as “Fiddle Thread” (“Double Filet” in French, “Augsburger Faden” in German); I have dozens of pieces from numerous countries. Here are five teaspoons in that pattern from Lausanne (canton Vaud) dating from 1793-1803. They can be dated so narrowly because of the mark of maker Pierre-Henri Dautun (1729-1803). Dautun was a second generation silversmith of French descent who married, in 1760, Marie Servier. Her sister, Marguerite, five years earlier had also married a silversmith, Elie Papus (1713-1793); together, the two men created Papus & Dautun, the finest 18th century silversmithing firm in Switzerland. Dautun continued the firm after the 1793 death of his partner until his own death ten years later: thus the dating of these spoons. The marks here, going left to right, are 1) the Lausanne arms: the city mark of Lausanne; 2) “HD” with crown and star: the maker’s mark of Pierre-Henri Dautun; 3) “XI” with a fleur-de-lys and star: the Roman numeral 11, for the fineness of 11 deniers, or .916, and 4) an ant: a French mark used, in this conforming outline, from 1838-1864 on imported articles (which makes sense, since I found these spoons in France.)

After Dautun’s death, his firm was assumed by Antoine-Pierre Mercier (1775-1820), who had, from Nov. 1804 to Dec. 1807, an apprentice named Marc Gély (1787-1871). Marc his brother Charles Gély (1789-1860), grandsons of French expatriate silversmith David-Benoît Gély (1734-1809), formed a partnership in 1813, and a year later purchased Mercier’s workshop upon his retirement. Frères Gély, or Gély Brothers, continued the fine tradition of Papus & Dautun into the first half of the 19th century (although one source states - without any reference or corroboration - that only Marc was a silversmith and Charles merely the bookkeeper). Here is a set of four teaspoons marked with the arms of the city of Lausanne and the maker’s mark of “F.G.” for Frères Gély, with rounded fiddle handles and slight mid-rib, a common pattern known in French as “Uniplat”, dating from the early 18th century and continuing well into the 19th. (See the thread I mentioned before for salmoned’s earlier example (Maker "F S" and Shield mark?) by Jean-Frédéric Schmidt of Lausanne, and the link referenced there for a yet earlier example by Papus & Dautun.)

Also from Lausanne is this pair of spoons I got recently for scrap, and understandably so, given their terrible condition. But I was excited by the beautiful marks of Gustave Hofer, père (1816-1896), a worker at Frères Gély. He eventually purchased the firm in 1846, thus inheriting a century-old tradition of craftsmanship; his son Gustave Hofer, fils (1856-1939), would continue the firm until 1918. (The “2” in the city arms refers to the company’s second standard of silver, probably equivalent to 10 deniers, or .833.)

Here’s another sad little pair of spatulate-handle teaspoons that came in a small lot of (mostly Swiss) scrap spoons, likewise in deplorable shape, but with clear and intriguing marks: a rampant lion (struck twice) and the maker’s mark “PK”, in script. Johann Philipp Knickmeyer (1806-1859; Master by 1853) was born in Hameln, Germany. He became a citizen of the Basel suburb of Kleinhüningen (canton Basel-Stadt) in 1839, and is listed in the directory there in 1846. He became a citizen of Basel city proper in 1853 and is listed in the guild rolls as master the same year. His widow Friederike (née Brendle) continued his workshop with their sons Samuel Lukas (1841-1869) and Georg Karl (1844-1869) Knickmeyer. She died in 1876 in Karlsbad (now part of the Czech Republic). Although the city mark of Basel is generally a Baselstab (“Staff of Basel”, the unique crozier used by the Bishops of Basel), the lions here are a reminder that in the Basel canton, the city mark was struck by the maker and not the guild. The rampant lions are probably an homage to Knickmeyer’s Hameln origins; the rampant lion was the symbol of the Hameln-Pyrmont district of Lower Saxony. (The arms of Kleinhüningen – which was a separate city until it was incorporated into Basel at the turn of the 19th/20th century - are not known as a silver mark; rather unfortunate, if you ask me, as they depict Attila the Hun!)

To be continued . . .

posted 02-01-2008 11:57 AM            

I and everyone at the SSF very much appreciate your efforts to keep us informed. I am looking forward to part II.

posted 05-03-2008 08:49 PM            

The first is an “uniplat” spoon, curiously lacking the upper mid-rib, but with the popular engraved reverse handle and bowl common in Switzerland in the last quarter of the 18th century. I mentioned in my earlier discussion of a similarly decorated spoon by Hans Jacob Wolff that the Zürich city mark changed in 1779 from a “Z” to the city arms (“per bend, argent and azure”; i.e., a shield divided diagonally, silver on the upper right and blue on the lower left). This spoon has a good example of the new mark, with the tinctures (colors) of the arms faithfully reproduced according to the rules of hatching, with azure (blue) represented by horizontal lines, and argent (silver) represented by no lines at all. To the right of the city mark is the assayer’s mark, another innovation of 1779. From that date two assayers – a primary assayer and a substitute assayer - were elected from the ranks of the Zürich guild, each to serve for two years. Each assayer had his own distinct mark, and it was not uncommon for a substitute assayer to later become primary assayer; often in this event he would to continue use the same mark he had as substitute. Here the assayer is Hans Martin Denzler (1754-1801), who served as substitute assayer 1784-1786 and primary assayer 1786-1788 and again 1790-1796. Although he used the same double scroll device throughout, the two punches used 1784-1788 and 1790-1796 are sufficiently distinct to date this mark (and thus the spoon) to the later 1790-1796 period. The maker’s mark “CZ” has been attributed to two Zürich makers: Hans Caspar Zimmerman (1756-1818; Master 1781) and Hans Conrad Zimmerman (1750-1808; Master 1793). Apparently, the two men were not related; the former was the son of a Schaffhausen coppersmith, the latter from a family of Zürich goldsmiths. Although the current thinking seems to favor attribution to Conrad because of his family ties, I think his relatively short working period (in part owing a sixteen year stint in the French army, 1776-1792!) makes him the less likely candidate.

The other is a more traditional uniplat spoon, unadorned, large (10-1/2”) and hefty (92 gr.). It is engraved on the reverse with a large double monogram “CL/LZ” and marked with a bear passant - the canting (punning) arms of Bern (canton Bern) - and a cursive “B”: the mark of Ludwig Friedrich Brugger (1770-1849; Master 1794). The son of a dyer, nothing is known of his apprenticeship, but he married in 1796 and served in several guild offices over the ensuing years. He was a prolific maker, if the number of items bearing his mark is any guide. Among the trainees in his workshop was Georg Adam Rehfues (1784-1858), who would go on to found, in 1814, one of the best Swiss silver firms of the 19th century.

posted 10-09-2008 12:10 PM            

First is a late 18th/early 19th century spoon that I probably paid too much for, given its worn tip and drop. But it is marked with a fine example of the relatively rare civic arms of Delémont (German = Delsberg), capital of the canton Jura (a new canton, created from the canton Bern only in 1979). The unusual arms depict a baselstab over a montjoie. The baselstab (see above) derives from Peter Reich von Reichenstein, bishop of Basel, who granted Delémont its municipal rights in 1289. (The bishops of Basel used the small city as a retreat.) The montjoie is a French heraldic device composed of six coupeaux (called “hillocks” or “hills” in English heraldry), used undoubtedly not only as a canting device but also illustrative of Delémont’s geography as a valley in the Jura mountains. The small city (even today scarcely 12,000 people) could sustain only one family of silversmiths in the 18th century, the Piegays: father François-Pierre Piegay (1709-1792) and his son - the maker of this spoon - Xavier Piegay (1739-1818), whose maker’s mark “XP” is worn but visible.

Next is an uniplat fork from Restauration-era Geneva with a fine, crisp striking of the third standard lion’s head. The maker’s mark, however, is well-worn and lozenge-shaped (i.e., French-style). It is likely then, that it dates from shortly after the fall of Napoléon. I was very happy to finally get to look at this maker’s mark in person, as the literature is wildly varied on its attribution – even disagreeing on its proper orientation! de Vevey’s Manuel des orfèvres de Suisse romande sees it as “IV” with a star above and a peak below, and does not hazard an attribution, noting only that it appears in conjunction with the 1815-1881 Geneva marks. However, Lanz’s Weltliches Silber 2, has an earlier and somewhat clearer version of the mark, struck on a spoon alongside Imperial French marks 1809-1815. He interprets it as “AL” with the star below and an unidentified device (a trowel? a torch?) above, and attributes it tentatively to Antoine-Alexis Latour (1756-1837), a silversmith in the Geneva suburb of Carouge. As I say, I had hoped that seeing this mark in peeson would make things clearer, but I still can’t make up my mind: “AL” or “IV”? However, I will say, had de Vevey known that this maker was also working during the French occupation, he doubtless would have recognized that “IV” had to be either Jean-Joseph Vallon (1747-1818) or Jean-Pierre Vettiner (1794-1836)

Next, a teaspoon on which a tear in the bowl has been over-zealously repaired, with the drop being polished entirely away. That explains the cheap price on an online auction, but I was more interested in the marks anyway. I recognized them as those used by the very famous Bern firm of Rehfuss & Co. The firm was founded by Georg Adam Rehfuss (1784-1858) in 1815 and continued by his son Philipp Rudolf Rehfuss (1820-1866) after his death. (Oddly enough, flatware with their mark doesn’t turn up nearly as much as does hollowware.) The Bern bear is the third mark, and the crowned “R” may stand for “Rehfuss”, although it may be some sort of standard mark, since a crowned “F” and “B” are also known. I was hoping to be able to identify the other two marks, but even though both are well-known on Rehfuss’ output, I still can’t determine what they are meant to represent.

Next, my most recent acquisition: a souvenir from our evacuation to Natchez, Mississippi during Hurricane Gustav. It’s a nice fiddle thead tablespoon, with the threading hand-chased in. (I always like that! It can be indicative of an altered uniplat spoon – usually betrayed by its incorrect proportions - but in this case it appears to be original.) It has very nice Restauration-era Zurich marks, with the assayer’s mark used from 1822 to 1826. During that time, primary assayer Johannes Holzhalb and secondary assayer Diethelm Gyger II both used the same foliate (holly leaves?) mark. The maker “IW” is Johann Jacob Wirth (1790-1838); Master 1815. He was a fifth-generation goldsmith, son of Johann Melchior Wirth and great-great grandson of 17th century Zurich master Heinrich Wirth. (He was also the uncle of Melchior Conrad Wirth discussed in part 2 of this thread.) Wirth himself served as substitute assayer 1815-1818 (mark: a fleur-de-lys) and primary assayer 1818-1822 (mark: a six-pointed rowel).

Lastly is a pair of uniplat tablespoons with an attractive conjoined monogram (AL/TH?). Once again, there is the Zurich mark, but now crowned. The city mark in this form was used after 1833, when the authority of the guild was abrogated and the office of assay master abolished. However, the divided oval mark here was used 1833-1840, apparently in the same context as the defunct assayer’s mark, i.e. as some sort of guarantee mark. The maker “FRIES” is David Conrad Fries II (1788-1861), Master 1816, son of goldsmith David Fries I. The younger Fries served 1826-1830 as substitute assayer (mark: a tulip) and 1830-1833 as the last primary assayer of the Zurich guild (mark: a fish or a sword).