Featured Sølje pieces for repair?

Hello! I'm new here!
My mom gave me this sølje for my birthday. It used to be my grandmothers (she was from Kristiansand before moving to the States in the 50s). It's obviously missing a dangle at the bottom. I can find some filigree and spoons and some of the diamond shaped pieces online but none that match. Anyone out there have any idea where to look for pieces to make this one whole again?
Thank you!
Sarah

 

Very nice gift, Sgdenmt! Greetings!

 

Welcome Sgdenmt, that is a very nice heirloom. Love the Viking dragon heads.
The pin can be replaced, but as you have found, finding the exact same dangles can be a problem.
Maybe @DragonflyWink has an idea.

 

The pin is actually in tact, the picture of the back is deceptive.
I figured the dangles would be hard to find. I didn't want to mix styles too much, I suppose I could just leave it, it's still pretty as is. I'm not sure how old it is or where it was from. She had several styles of these pins, most were circles with little gold spoons.

 

Hi - welcome to the forums. How lovely for you to have this wonderful heirloom...


I'm so fond of the Dragestil (dragon-style) sølje, and though have doubts that they're traditional bunadsølv (Norwegian regional costume silver), but more intended for the general market, they usually seem to have decent age.

Don't know the 'C' or 'crescent' mark, though Th. Marthinsen used a less curved crescent mark that faced the other direction (and can't recall seeing bunadsølv by Marthinsen). Sometimes a piece might be attributed to a maker by the dangles, and as you've found, there are slight differences in all but the typical round or teardrop 'spoons' - can't really recall seeing those very unusual, sort of 'double gourd' (for lack of a better term) shaped dangles on yours. Personally, don't believe I'd worry about matching the center dangle, and it likely had filigree bits (which also have numerous differences) that dropped the center piece below the two side pieces, but wouldn't be particularly unusual for it to be different in shape, so would look for a different shape, something like the center 'cross' on this sølje:


https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-NO...225618?hash=item265a172d52:g:KKoAAOSwZsRgNWXs


The Hallingdal based Sando site is one of my favorites for bunadsølv: https://www.bunadsolje.com/en.html - lots of interesting information, and handily available in English language. Not sure if they offer the dangles for sale on their own, but might be worth asking - the only piece I've needed to restore was suitably taken care of with an orphaned earring, cheaply procured, but if you find a source for other than the odd bits, please let us know!


~Cheryl

 

Thank you for all of this info! This is great. I'll update if I find any other info from my family or otherwise.
Sarah

 

Someone who does casting or works with silver clay could make a mold from this and create the missing dangle, but it wouldn't be cheap, or even reasonable, and trying to match the patina would be difficult.

If you could find one matching or complementary triangle or other drop, you could take one filigree piece off each side and use one of them as the center dangle with the new drop on it - something like this:

 

Small update.
So, I'm still on the look out for the "gourd" shaped pieces and some filigree but in the meantime I've adjusted the existing pieces so it's whole and made a little pendant for a necklace out of the remaining pieces.
Thanks everyone!