posted 04-08-2001 11:11 PM              

Moreover, this is something I've noted quite often with French silver of the late 18th and early 19th century: there's an inscription that includes a date earlier than the hallmark. The phenomenon seems especially common on goblets, beakers, wine-tasters, etc. And I've never seen anything like it on English or American silver.

I can think of a few explanations for this, none of them quite satisfactory. One, of course, is that the inscriptions were added by unscrupulous dealers to make the pieces more attractive. But on my marriage cup, as on the goblet I've linked to, the inscription is in proper 18th-century style, with as much wear as the rest of the cup. Furthermore, until recently, most collectors preferred pieces without inscriptions (some still do).

Another explanation is that the date commemorates some important earlier event (eg, the date the owner was born, as in the case of the goblet). But why? And my marriage cup was naturally bought for the occasion of a marriage ... so why would they engrave a date of five years earlier?

One final theory I came up with is that later, 19th-century family members, having inherited the pieces and wanting to show off the fact that they were heirlooms, engraved them with the family name and (since they couldn't interpret the hallmarks) a date that seemed about right, erring on the side of making it older. This seems the most plausible explanation, but it still doesn't quite ring true.

Does anyone else out there have any ideas?

I'll try to post photos of the marks and inscription on my 1784/1779 cup.

posted 04-09-2001 09:06 AM              

Seriously, these kinds of questions -- the way that objects "remember" things about the cultures that created them -- are what make silver (and other artifacts) so fascinating to study, right?