Featured 800 Silver and Leather Something

Picked this up from a friends sale. Stands 3 3/4" tall and measures 1 1/8" across the top. Marked 800 in 2 spots. He said South American? But don't know.

 

Kraft, are you sure it's not a Yerba Mate drinking gourd?

 

It is, imo. Probably Argentinian.

 

Now you need a bombilla to go with it...

~Cheryl

 

Concur! Only lacking the bombilla:

 

Thank you everyone!

 

...and some mate! It's a tea drink with lots of caffeine. You put the leaves in the gourd and add boiling water. Drink through the spoon/straw that has a strainer in the bottom.

 

the oval 800 was used in Italy.
but after 1945 many other Europeans went to South America.

 

I'd lay odds the Mate cup is Peruvian.

 

As already suggested, much more likely to be Argentinian than Peruvian - have also seen many very similar in design to this one over the years, in both silver and alpaca, often marked as made in Argentina...

~Cheryl

 

Makes sense - lots of folks bailed for Argentina after WWII.

 

As far as I know the oval cartouche mark was already used before WWII, it changed to a diamond shaped cartouche in 1959.
The name La Argentina means the silver one, btw, after the silver riches, which atttracted the Spanish in the first place. Silver objects have been made in Argentina for thousands of years.
The floral repoussé style is classic colonial Argentinian, I remember it from the gaucho knives and other silver my father brought back for us when I was a child.
Although there are many people of Italian descent in Argentina, the Argentinians never needed the Italians for either silvercraft or marks, they were doing a pretty good job on their own.

Different gaucho knives:


http://www.vikingsword.com/ethsword/facon/criollo.html

 

Thanks again everyone! Always a big help!