Featured 6 silver teacups went cheaply.

But they went to me, so that is OK

In a local auction, well, sort of local, it's about a hour's drive each way, I bought a set of six china lined foreign silver teacups and saucers.



for the modest price of just over £50. I had left a much higher bid but the saleroom was an honest one and they went for the bottom estimate. The reason for this I suspect, is that either everyone except me was watching the royal wedding (the sale was today, Saturday) or the foreign silver marks deterred the buyers. Here is a picture of the marks and I would appreciate any opinions on where they may be from and what they mean.



The first mark may be an arabic 90 for the silver purity.
The others I do not recognise.

I have a couple of searches set up in thesaleroom.com, one for Herend, hoping to find a fishnet cat, and one for silver teacups, this is the first time I have been shown anything both desirable and local enough to be practical to collect.

THis is not a heap of silver for a lot less than scrap price, the saucers only weigh 18 grams each, just under 4 ounces the lot, and I am guessing the cups weigh about the same. Not that I am thinking of scrapping them, but it is nice to know I'm a few bob ahead just on the metal value.

 

Nice - Egyptian, between 1940 and 1946 (have a chart somewhere for the exact year): http://www.925-1000.com/foreign_marks.html

~Cheryl

 

Yes, Egyptian, .900 fineness, year 1945-46, looks like Cairo (the squiggle above 90).
Lovely set, af.

Edit: Studying the town mark (the squiggle ) a bit more closely makes me think it is Alexandria, not Cairo.

 

All Egyptian town marks are squiggles just above the fineness mark. Some squiggles have bits at one end which are either slightly longer or a lot longer. That is how us poor collectors are supposed to make sense of the marks.
Some marks are nicely defined, which makes it much easier. These are a bit worn.

 

Thanks for the information.
Looks like a wartime souvenir found its way to Shropshire, and thence to the saleroom. Gastro-expedition planned to pick it up next week. Trip out and a pub lunch financed by the difference between what I had to pay and what I would have paid.

 

Wow, with that title, I had to look! Nice find!

 

All that for fifty quid? Dang - royal weddings really are good for something!

 

Almosst good for a divorce here. My partner has been watching it all day, including action replays and for all I know, a ball by ball commentary, the last time I ventured into the TV room and commented to the effect of 'Oh, no, not more of this' I was told to FOAD, more or less.
Calm has now been restored.

 

Did you watch some of the wedding? BBC America is replaying it here, or was when I looked. Then I changed the channel - once through someone else's wedding video is enough.

 

No, no interest in it. Weddings for young people can be sgnificant for them, for people in their late 30s who have been around the block a bit, it is just show business.
With luck it will, like any good show,bring in more than it cost.

 

Now there is a coincidence! Just delving in an unsorted auction box and what do i find?

 

Lovely box, very traditional North African with those fishes. Fish imagery (fertility) has been used there ever since Phoenician times.
Nice clear marks, the way we love to see them. Thank you Egypt! .900 silver fineness, Alexandria 1944-45.

 

The cat looks a lot more catlike than mine.

 

Probably a different breed.

 

Mau instead of Abyssinian?

 

I was thinking af's cat mark was the elusive 'small-headed Egyptian Mau'. Rh's cat is more like a Persian. They should have used it for an import mark.

 

AKA, a "floof" she says blowing cat hair off of her nose....