Featured Giovanni leaf pin .... Silver?

Picked this up for a buck. Looks older than any other Giovanni jewelry I find. Different mark. Definitely cast. Any chance this is solid silver/sterling? Mark is poorly cast so looks as blurry in life as it does in my photos.

 

According to what I saw, the company goes back into the 1870s, but I think the Giovanni mark went into use after WWII. 1959? I sincerely doubt the leaf is silver.

 

I only enlarged it as I didn't think the spelling looks totally like Giovanni, but I could also be way off base!!!

​

 

It is Giovanni. Took me awhile to figure it out. There is a shield before the G. Was able to find another with this mark on eBay. It is a gold-tone leaf pin. I am finding nothing in silver. However, the quality of the work on this pin seems a bit better than most I am seeing from the company. I am thinking it a bit older, but probably just plated.

 

Nice detail in the front casting -- Just curious about the size of this. Is it a couple of inches long? Or larger? Or smaller?

 

I would think something of this age would be marked "sterling" or "925" if silver. Looks well made though.

 

Have done some more searching and just not finding this mark, other than the one pin on ebay. It is item #166385320762. The mark on it is just as poorly struck as on mine.

About 3" long.

This is the conclusion I am coming to. I am finding no products by this company in precious metal. Most is not of the quality I am seeing with my pin. It is at least silver plated, as I polished it a bit for the photo. I am not going to take any more time with this one and will price it as costume.

I picked up 3 other pins with this one at the thrift store. All at a buck each. One is another similar plated(?) leaf pin with no marks at all. The second is a small silver deer with a turquoise oval stone in the belly. It looks to be silver but, again, no marks. The last is a marked Leonore Doskow sterling bar pin with leaves. They probably missed the mark, as it is on the side of the bar rather than the back.

Can't complain, as I have not been finding much jewelry worth buying lately. The thrifts are mostly putting out pure junk and Goodwill has stopped selling jewelry at all. I have been selling jewelry from my hoard since before Christmas. Have sold several hundred dollars' worth of silver and costume jewelry. Also just sent off about $1500 worth of gold to the refiner. Not bad for stuff that has just been sitting around.

 

Show us the deer too. The leaf pins were common in the 1960s. Some were precoious metal but most weren't.