Featured Best shooter lent?

Hello every one, i am new here and i need help. I have chance to buy one piece and i would like to hear your judge about it. It is best shooter lent before ww2, 1920-1940, silver 835, long 47 centimeters or 18.5 inches. Here are the photos. If you have any idea about this piece or value please help

 

He told it is German or Austrian?

 

Hi Nino!

I can't help, but just want to welcome you to Antiquers!

 

Thank you bro

 

You're welcome.

Wait for others to view your post and offer comment.

 

I will

 

Welcome Nino. That is a beautiful piece.


I am in the Netherlands, and here we would call this a 'schuttersketen', a marksman's chain. It is awarded to the best marksman in a series of shooting competitions, usually with bow and arrow or crossbow, occasionally rifle. Nowadays women also compete.
The best marksman is 'king' of the guild, hence the crown.
The guilds used to protect towns, but now they are part of local folklore. The guild king's name and title, sometimes for several years in a row, is engraved on the shield. This hasn't happened on yours, so it looks like it was commissioned, but never awarded.

With that silvermark I think German. Could we see closeups of the other medallions? Those could tell us more of the origin.



This is a 16th century Dutch 'schuttersketen', from the days when the guilds really needed to protect their towns.
One shield with crest is shown separately. It originally had a lot of those little shields attached around the bottom, for the successive guild kings:


This chain belonged to the guild of St George in the town of Bergen op Zoom. St George features on the chain:

 

You are so informed about this, thank you.Your piece is so nice. I am sorry but i don, t have better photos for now. He sent me just this. I can see eagle holding a gun on this meddalion. I will probably buy it for 100 dollars. I hope it is not fake and that is worth more then that price

 

I have never heard of fakes in this type of thing. It looks real to me and I'm sure it is worth more than $100.

It is beautiful, but not mine. It belongs to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam now.

 

I am sorry it is not yours haha. If i get more pictures i will post it here. I will ask him more. Your information are very helpfull to me.

 

JMHO. purity 835, the form of the crown and the oak leaves make it German.

 

Thank you Fid. Any idea about value ?

 

WELCOME Nino !!! ... Joy.

 

As I said, probably German, based on the mark. What look like oak leaves are supposed to be honorary palm leaves, for the guild king. The lobes of oak leaves are more rounded.
The crown is pretty generic for most regions where they have these guilds. The crown had nothing to do with the king or emperor of the nation the guild was in, but the king or emperor of the guild itself.
These are some Dutch examples of single marksmen guild shields with similar guild crowns:





As you can see, Dutch shields are more like the usual shield shape.
The elongated shape on Nino's chain looks more German to me as well, with a hint of Jugendstil in the shape and the little curl at the bottom.

 

Now i know a lot more. These are really interesting pieces. Are these things valuable and wanted stuff between collectors?

 

The value of your chain is mainly in the silver and the crafstmanship. It is not antique, so maybe not of interest to collectors, but it is well made.

Here in the Netherlands there are collectors of Dutch pieces specifically, with older and rarer pieces being more valuable. Some guild members will pay good money for antique chains and shields related to their guilds. I have sold a few antique shields in the past, they always sold within ca two weeks after listing them.

I suspect the interest will be similar in Germany.
The chain is not antique, so think of it as a good, well-made piece of silver, not as an antique collectable.
But since there is no inscription it could still be used. Maybe a German 'Schützenverein' or a German-American 'Schuetzenverein' will want to buy it either for their own use or for a collection.
If you were to buy it, you could list it on ebay for example, with the option of selling internationally.

 

Welcome to Antiquers, @Nino Mataic --

And to @Any Jewelry , thank you for adding all of the detailed information!

 

Pleasure, of course. Also from a bit of local pride, I live in a part of the Netherlands where 'guild culture' is part of local identity.
To give you an idea, here is the guild of Soerendonk, not far from where I live. One of the men on the left wears a vest with silver shields.


My favourite part of guild festivals is always swirling the flags, which are also thrown in the air. The different movements of the flags symbolize honour and the fight between good and evil.
Here they are just catching the flags:

 

I'd concentrate on countries where possession of weapons was limited to club members like Germany etc.. then there are countries that had an army which watched over the weaponry.
I can only speak for myself and out of my own experience: Italy most people on the countryside have hunting rifles; same for France - and nobody of the elderly thinks of getting them registered because an alcoholic of Luxemburg and his Belgium administration count for nothing - and you often find assault rifles, a bit of explosives and some handgranades...same for Switzerland...
everything else is called "Weicheier" in German.