Featured 935 Silver Ruby & Turquoise pendant

This was black with dirt at the bottom of a box of scrap jewellery. At 50p I whisked it away!
I think from previous posts 935 is German or Swiss, does this look right or are there other countries that use the mark.
Does this date it? I can’t find the previous thread where we discussed the use of the 935 mark so apologies if covering the same ground.
The ruby lights up under UV and the whole pendant is c2cm across.
Last question, it’s missing a dangle so pearl or what would be appropriate?
Thanks for looking

 

On behalf of the entire jewellery collecting community, I applaud your whisking. From now on you shall be known to us as Whisky K.

Or Austrian (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
It looks like it could be a late or post- Austro-Hungarian Renaissance Revival pendant. The turquoises are likely European ones, probably from Romania.

As you said, it is missing a dangle, probably silver, but a pearl replacement will look good too. A teardrop shape if you can find one, not too small.

The bow is a silver stylisation of the silk bows from which precious pendants used to hang in the Renaissance and Baroque period.

 

Thanks AJ!
I was getting AH vibes from it but wasn’t sure with the 935 mark. That makes sense though with the geography

What sort of date would that be?

Steady, you might get me a reputation

 

1920s, but I would consider the period from the 1890s until the 1920s.

 

Thankyou

 

German, neither Austrian nor Swiss. To my knowledge Switzerland never had 935 silver, until 1933 they had 800 and 875, after 1933 800 and 925.
Austria had a special hallmark (hoopoe mark) with a "1" to indicate 935 silver (until 1954, 925 silver thereafter).
Datewise: 1920-1935, maybe even after the war around 1950

 

Given the heavy look of the piece, rural Germany could be an option.

That is an assay mark, but Austrian provincial pieces weren't always assayed. Most of my 20th century locally bought Austrian 'Trachten' jewellery isn't assayed either, it just has the fineness mark. Sometimes not even that.
This happened in other countries too, in The Netherlands for instance.

 

Austrian marks have an additional letter indicating the province and even in the provinces the pieces had to be marked (tax purposes...). The piece here is a serial product, most likey produced in great scale in a jewellery factory. The casting and the finishing all indicate a mass produced piece. This all indicates that it is a product of a jewellery factory in Schwaebisch Hall or Pforzheim rather than made by a provincial Austrian silversmith.

 

The assay town.

Yes, legally it had to be marked, but in reality that didn't always happen, as I said before.

That is what assay means. Assaying does not just apply to cigarettes and alcohol, but also to precious metals.

Yes, the casting and finishing is clearly not perfect, which could have been done anywhere, and even by someone who works alone.

I have never heard of grand scale jewellery manufacture in Schwäbisch Hall, I only know the old Haller/Heller coins, which were a standard for many Medieval traders.
Do you have any examples of Schwäbisch Hall jewellery, or information on the history of jewellery manufacture in Schwäbisch Hall maybe?

It is a charming pendant, but frankly I don't see the perfection of Pforzheim pieces. Or of Schwäbisch Gmünd jewellery (my soft spot) for that matter.