Featured Help with gold hallmarks

Cufflinks with two different hallmarks. I thought they’d be French but they don’t seem to match. The mark on the lone collar stud matches mark on one of the cufflinks. The longer mark is on one of the two cufflinks. Stud has a French patent pending mark stamp.

 

I wonder if those were for a military uniform ? How big are they ?

 

Pretty basic cufflink size.

 

https://www.graysantiques.com/produ...oss-design-and-inset-enamel-french-circa-1890

seems the lapel stud is made the same way.........

 

not military ....they're made to look like buttons...

 

Marks in diamond-shaped cartouches are often French maker's marks.

 

Looks similar to a Goenè et Darde makers mark but can't find anything by way of cufflinks by them so perhaps pas.

https://www.langantiques.com/university/mark/belperron-suzanne/

Maybe try Fleur de lys in search terms

 

@J Dagger, I can't say I clarified much.........but to me, your first image kind of looks like maybe 3 snakes with one animal (maybe a lizzard?0 on it's back with legs upward.....but was able to lighten enough in the dark area on the left to reveal some letters....maybe you can see them anyway with a loupe? The other two, I think I just sharpened a bit more......but nothing's jumping out at me on the others!! Sorry, I fell asleep before I got to them last night!!!!!!!!







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You’re almost definitely right that they are makers vs. hallmarks. I was so busy looking for hallmarks I didn’t think of the obvious. So I wonder if they aren’t gold, if marks wore off, or if I just didn’t see them yet? I’ll give another look.

 

Good find! Thnx

 

Those are very close certainly. Thanks for searching for them! I use Lang’s a lot too.

 

Thanks Aqui. I didn’t notice any letters by the snake like mark. I’ll take another look under the loupe. Looks like a D at the end of the makers mark with a cross or fleur de lis inbetween it and the first mystery letter.

 

Turns out there are crystal clear eagle hallmarks that I didn’t notice at first. I believe they are the “small” mark for 18k. That seems to be the same exact mark used for gold & base metal +/- 50% but in this case I think it’s the 18k small mark.

 

I think the one with the lines may just be a poorly struck eagle. There’s a clearly struck eagle in same spot on the other cufflink. I didn’t see the letter under a loupe.

 

that actually looks like an eagle.......

 

A very beautiful and crisp eagle mark for .750 gold.

They are not the same, the gold with base metal one has a little symbol in a cartouche overlapping the eagle's cheek, and the gold with silver one has a boar's head facing the other way from the eagle's head.

 

Yeh, literally they aren’t exactly the same but for practical purposes on an old item this small they may as well be. Like the 22k and 18k eagles are the same except a tiny number and different cartouche shape. That’s fine on paper and maybe the day the mark was struck on a good sized surface. On a tiny, not totally flat surface or on an older item with wear/polish it may as well be exactly the same. Often the edges of the cartouche get soft or disappear as does the little letter or number in them. For practical purposes it’s incredibly hard to distinguish them on a small old thing often. Using a different base mark altogether would have made things so much easier. Foresight would have been helpful here. I’d imagine it had to do with using existing punches with slight modifications rather than making new ones with though. Much cheaper to use what you have and add to it than make new ones. Also keeping them recognizable I’m sure went into it. If you have 50 different animals or marks it’s more confusing in the short term. The way they did it is more confusing in the long term though.

 

There were no modifications of old punches, every new design for a punch was executed new. But if there was gold, an eagle's head had to be in the mark. So an eagle + something else.
Because the marks were so tiny they are difficult to see with the naked eye, but on your last photo it was very clear.

 

good find...to you too !!!