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 18C pendant?
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Paul Lemieux Posts: 1792 |
posted 07-19-2007 12:37 AM
  
Here is an interesting old pendant I picked up recently. The imagery is the coronation of the Virgin Mary. The style of the imagery is very medieval in the way the figures are executed. The pendant is marked as shown in the second picture. I can't quite decipher the marks. There is a definite "SBC" as well as another name, which could be "??RSZ". The hallmark, which probably identifies where this was made, is indecipherable to me. The back of this pendant features a picked monogram as well as a picked border. Also present is a zigzag assay mark. I am thinking that this is from a German province, although this picked style of monogram is also seen elsewhere, such as on old Norwegian and Danish silver. I spent about an hour going through Tardy trying to match the partial mark on this pendant to something, but to no avail. Also spent a while looking at other references for similar pieces. The closest was a 16th century Mother and Child pendant I saw in "Primitive and Folk Jewelry," but I really don't think this pendant is that early. I feel more like this is an 18th century piece. Can anybody supply suggestions about when and where this piece was made? IP: Logged |
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FWG Posts: 845 |
posted 07-19-2007 11:19 AM
To me it has an Eastern European or Mediterranean sort of 'feel' -- and I've seen picked monograms from the Mediterranean as late as the 20th century. My impression is more 19th than 18th century. The marks and style, perhaps less so the picked monogram, also possibly could be Spanish colonial (especially if the partial mark ends in IZ instead of SZ), but I didn't find a good correspondence in Marcas de la plata española y virreinal. And SBC is unlikely in Spanish, either as initials or abbreviation. Guimaraes, Portugal, pre-1881, would be another even longer shot, but I can just about conceive the first mark as a crowned G, and those varied a lot. Still, my strongest sense is more towards the eastern Mediterranean, and unfortunately marks from that region seem not to be very well documented.... IP: Logged |
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Paul Lemieux Posts: 1792 |
posted 07-19-2007 12:32 PM
Does silver from the Mediterranean lands have the zigzag assay mark? Actually, upon further inspection, the imagery does seem to have a decidedly Mediterranean feel. I don't have very much experience with silver from that region, and had never even considered that as a possibility. I'm curious to see if others have input. [This message has been edited by Paul Lemieux (edited 07-19-2007).] IP: Logged |
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FWG Posts: 845 |
posted 07-19-2007 01:00 PM
Short and not very helpful answer: sometimes. It seems to be poorly documented, and from the pieces I've seen - working from memory - Mediterranean silver does occasionally, but certainly not consistently, have the assay sampling zigzag. Part of the problem is that since the marks themselves are poorly documented it's sometimes hard to know if you're looking at something from, say, Greece, or Croatia. Spanish and Latin American certainly can, but don't always have them. Portugal I'm not sure about, as I've not handled much older Portuguese silver. [This message has been edited by FWG (edited 07-19-2007).] IP: Logged |
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vathek Posts: 966 |
posted 07-19-2007 01:55 PM
Although of no help in answering the above question I have a similar mystery. This small bronze or copper plague is of the adoration of the magi and is decidedly old, but how old? The figures are in pretty high relief for the size of the object 2.5x3". Is it a medieval plaque from a reliquary? Since it's unmarked I will probably never really know how old it is or where it came from, tho it has a French look to it. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 07-19-2007 11:46 PM
Liturgical items can be difficult to track down. Frequently they are made outside the world of the silversmith. The same identical piece can appear in silver, gold, brass, copper and bronze. After many hours spent researching contemporary liturgical silver, I have no clue who makes most of these things. Vendors sell anonymously produced religious things to people who are religiously inclined. And disinterested in silver. It is possible to compare the image to a list of iconic representations. Some, like Our Lady of Guadalupe or the Sacred Heart, have a definite starting date. Others date back to Roman times. Here we have Mary being crowned Queen of the Angels. The point here would be to find when this image first appeared. Which would be done by figuring out when this became part of the liturgical calendar. Then try to see a representative list of images for that event. Figure out which ones are closest to the example on hand. This is doable, but requires acess to a Catholic encyclopedia. IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 07-20-2007 12:27 AM
The image shown appears to be a variation on Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The images are without the crowning but pretty much show the same scene in the same way. This image does not appear in contemporary offerings. I found this link utterly fascinating: Medals Patron Saints IP: Logged |
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