posted 02-03-2004 03:10 PM              

Hi

I have a silver tea caddy said to be Danish dated around 1750 to 1800 it has a total of 6 hallmarks as follows:

• on the lid a very small face with a P
  
• on the back of the head might be wearing a helmet.
  
• On the bottom 4 hallmarks a sail boat, an H with a dot in the top of the H, 3 vertical stars with a crown on top
  
• last is a lion with a key coming out of the hallmark.
  
• Then very very small what looks like:
  H P AND A DOT BETWEEN THE HAND THE P

posted 02-03-2004 07:17 PM            

Try and post pictures if you can, my guess is that your piece is Dutch, not Danish. Seeing the piece and the marks would be a huge help. The small profile w/helmet and what I have always perceived as a sideways "A" would be a Netherlands assay mark, a lion with a small "1" or "2" would denote the silver fineness, and the key was used on export items. Also, late Victorian Dutch silversmiths were notorious for using large pseudo-marks to make a piece appear older. Not trying to say that your tea caddy isn't what you were told it was, would just be much easier to verify with the actual marks to look at, and often the actual appearance of the piece can be a clue to its age and origin..

Cheryl