Featured AI strikes again!!

I was going to try to help someone on one of my FB perfume pages. I took a shot & used Google image. This was the AI answer for these marks.

This is a set of British sterling silver hallmarks.

• The marks indicate the item is made of sterling silver.
• The first mark (left) is likely the maker's mark.
• The second mark is the lion passant, indicating sterling purity.
• The third mark is the town mark (e.g., London, Birmingham).
• The fourth mark, with the number "13", is likely a date letter or duty mark.

Of course, to CYA - "Disclaimer: The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute professional valuation or appraisal advice."

If anyone knows the real answer, feel free to post it.

 

13 loth....... perhaps a German / Austrian mark?

 

Oh, the joys of AI!

The head with collar 'en face' looks like a French guarantee mark.
The second mark, maybe a Phrygian cap (French revolution etc)?
As komo said 13 could be 13 Lot(h).
So maybe from a German/French region like Alsace and Lorraine.

What does the bottle look like?

 

Thank you for the information. If no one else has commented, I'll post some more photos.

It is actually an inkwell. Why they posted it on an antique perfume page, I have no idea.

 

Here are a couple of additional photos.

This is the page it is posted on.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1133483893339507/

 

Very nice! It looks German to me, so it could be from Alsace/Lorraine. Both are originally German cultural areas which have been both French and German territory throughout history, currently French.

 

Well, I've occasionally noted that some folks need a lot of perfume...an inkwell would have served as an appropriate dispenser for such necessarily copious quantities!

 

Thank you again!!

I will post your thoughts on FB & hopefully she can do further research on her own.

 

I’ve started to use image search quite a bit in the past few months. It’s pretty awesome when you get a hit in something that may have otherwise taken you many minutes, hours, or days. Of course all that time spent you wind up learning dozens of ancillary bits of info that become useful down the line. So you lose that but you save lots of time. Kind of a trade off I guess. The AI synopsis does get things very wrong, very regularly though. Like laughably wrong pretty often.

 

I agree & it is not that I won't use it again, but this was so laughably wrong I just had to share it with others who would understand.

Using the image search is no different than getting advice from someone. You should always do your own research to confirm the validity before citing it in a listing, or just for your own personal knowledge, for something in your collection.

 

Another thought: It could be from Hanau, Germany.
Hanau makers made very beautiful historic inspired silverware, but stamped them with pseudo-marks, fake marks based on historic marks, often from other countries. Historic UK and Dutch marks were favourites. Many makers were of Dutch origin, joined by descendants of Huguenots that came via the Dutch route.

The Hanau pseudo-marks are a mishmash, so French and German in the same row is in the realm of possibilities, although I have never seen it. And these marks are not among the known Hanau marks, nor in the list of unidentified Hanau marks.

 

Thank you again!!

 

Forgot to add 13 Lot(h) is just over .812 silver, so considerably lower than sterling, which is .925. But we knew AI was wrong anyway.

 

Couldn’t have said it better myself. I’m a frequent user of Google lens and replacements image search.
I’ve been working on a project to make my own trained image model, but it’s a long way from finished.