Featured Re-acquired family pieces

Hello, y'all! I haven't posted in a while, but I've been lurking...

My grandmother gave me a pile of souvenir spoons when I was about 10 years old. Among those spoons (which I still have, but don't know what to do with) was this pair, depicting Napoleon and Josephine. While I was away at college, my mother took it upon herself to give these to my brother as a wedding present. My brother passed away in 2000, and recently my sister-in-law returned these to me, along with a boxful of sterling items and another box of silver plate items that they were given when my mother's estate was settled.

They are about 11 inches, but I don't have a scale to weigh them. Napleon has hallmarks that I think are German, and Josephine is only marked "Sterling".

There are a few other items of interest that I'll put in separate threads, but I thought I'd start with these.
Any thoughts on age? I'm thinking 1920ish?

 

Likely

B. Neresheimer & Söhne

Hanau

Founded 1893

L. Neresheimer & Co. from 1903

August Neresheimer, Ludwig Neresheimer, and Jean Schlingloff

"In the silver-goods trade, which is carried on under excellent conditions, the imitation of antiquities plays, and has always played, a large part, especially in the more splendid works of bygone times, and it is in this direction that Messrs. B. Neresheimer and Sohne are best known... I was able to see the careful and artistic manner in which they produced copies of the Old masters. Nothing was too small or too large, everything being copied with a care and minuteness which were indeed creditable...Nuremberg work, double lady cups, old goblets, snuff boxes and a hundred and one beautiful little objects which remain to show the beauty of the old German silversmiths' work, were being copied for the wholesale market."[7]

Exhibited 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition [3]

1904 St. Louis International Exposition [8]

 

How considerate/inconsiderate of your Mother-how many of your baseball cards did she cremate ?
PS- Happened with all our folks.Have modern parents gotten any more 'woke' in the last 50 years as far as their kids possessions ?

 

Actually, this was the only this happened to anything of mine. That I know of...

 

Glad your spoons were returned to you! My father gave his grandfather's rifle to my oldest brother when he was a teenager, but he never took it when he left home, so my father gave it to me a decade later when I was a teenager, and it just stayed in a closet for at least 25 years until my bro was down visiting and he started talking about the 22 (I had no idea that he'd been given it before me), but he was thrilled when I handed it to him. He cleaned it up, and later had it professionally restored - not too long ago, our cousin decided that it should be his since my father adopted my brothers (my Mom's boys) and he isn't 'blood' - it's caused a rift between them, I'm furious, and my brother is hurt (but he's keeping the rifle).

Should mention that your spoons aren't a pair, different designs, the one without Hanau pseudo-marks could easily have been made by a different manufacturer (with the 'Sterling' stamp, was probably wholesaled to an American retailer), and the lady isn't Josephine, she may be Marie Antoinette, or just a pretty lady with a fan - but they're nice together...

https://www.925-1000.com/Fgerman_hanau.html

https://www.925-1000.com/Fgerman_hanau_marks_01.html

~Cheryl

 

Marie Antoinette is certainly a possibility. Her clothing is wrong for Josephine's era.

Debora

 

At first glance, I thought Marie Antoinette, too, but I wasn't sure. Because one has hallmarks, and the other only says sterling, I assumed they were by different makers, but they do make a nice pair for display, don't they?

My other brother (also now deceased) and I had arguments about family guns, too. Long story short, he wound up with the most valuable, but I got the ones I like to shoot.

 

There is a coat of arms below the female figure. You can compare it to Marie Antoinette's below.

Debora

 

Spot on, isn't it?

 

father gave it to me a decade later

Cheryl....... nuff said ... yours to do with what you want !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that cousin.......... what an ass !

 

Indeed!

My thoughts as well, I have casual Facebook contact with his sweet little sister and another cousin, and his late mother was an absolute gem, but otherwise I've pretty much had no contact with that side of the family for decades. My brother, on the other hand, has always been an active member of the family, so for that cousin to dismiss him as 'not really related' was despicable, his mom would be ashamed of him...

~Cheryl

 

My Cousin's Great Aunt never had kids-so she left her assets to 8 or 9 nieces,nephews,etc-this started a Civil War that lasted for years.
The (so-called) closest of kin can turn into a pack of homicidal vampires when it comes to money !
I've heard about this kind of blood feud many times.

 

I'm sort of the "last of the Mohicans". All my siblings have passed, and only one had children that survived. I have little or no contact with them, resulting from estate division issues after my mother died. That's why I was delighted when the widow of my other brother brought me everything (almost) that her husband had inherited. Her son OD'd several years ago, and she's downsizing with plans to travel. Mostly silver and silver plate items, a few guns and a few other little things.