Mystery Marks on Silver Bowl

Smart and intelligent peoples, I need your help!

I picked this up at the local flea-market. It was simply labeled "Silver" and the lady said it was sterling, but I have my doubts. Perhaps unwisely, I bought it anyway.

What do these marks mean? I've never seen them before. I hope I haven't bought a piece of crap...







Here is the bowl:



So. What do I have here?

 

I find the marks too blurred (out of focus) to see anything useful. Do you have a macro (close-up) facility on your camera, usually indicated by a little flower symbol. Backing off a bit then cropping the larger picture to just show the marks may also help.

Even if you are using a phone camera, the better ones have a selection of settings in a menu for the picture facility, there may be a close up feature there.

 

How's that?

 

Still very hard to see but the middle oval impression may be 925

 

That's what I believe also.....

 

That's what the lady who sold it to me, said, but I just couldn't see it, so that's why I posted it here. I don't see '925' ANYWHERE.

I see A 878...and that's it.

 

It's the middle mark. Next to A 878.

 

I know! That's what she said as well, but to me, it's just a higgle-de-piggledy mess of...wiggles... I don't understand how anybody sees numbers there?

 

Like rhiw and Judy, I see 925 in the middle oval mark. I also see the 1st mark "A878" like your do. That 3rd mark is certainly a mystery. I tried to make a head out of it by turning it this way and that, no no luck. Following are edited versions of the marks, but really not any better focused than yours. I did, however, try to outline the "925" in that middle mark.

--- Susan

 

With 925 in an oval, it may be the Italian purity mark for 925. If Italian, the mark on the far right might be the optional purity head mark.

#1-3 the crown head of optional purity mark.
#13 the 925 in an oval purity mark.
http://www.silvercollection.it/italianhallmarks.html

If memory serves, Italian maker's marks are sometimes a combination of a letter and number. The letter is the city, province, and the number is the maker's registration number.

--- Susan

Edit: Rather than 1 letter, Italian maker's mark are sometimes shown as 2 letters and a number. The first "8" might be a letter rather than a number??? following is a link to the letter and number combinations of Italian maker's marks:
http://www.silvercollection.it/SILVERSMITHSAL1.html

Here are all the Italian provinces' abbreviations:
http://www.925-1000.com/Fitalian_marks_01.html

 

Hi Susan,

That was extremely informative! Thank you.

So is this Italian silver, then? Or what? Frankly I'm amazed the 925-purity mark was so badly stamped (or that the punch was that worn out!).

 

You're welcome. I really think Italian, but wait for others to stop by. Hopefully Cheryl will spot this query.

--- Susan

 

Hm. I'm not so sure about Italian, but I don't have alternative suggestion.

IF it's Italian, it has to be post-1972 and the letter-number combination is something other than province-maker.

Cheryl's eyes on this would certainly help. And even if it turns out to be someplace else, you learned a lot from Susan's links!

 

Totally agree with Susan.....just lightened and despeckled it a bit.....92? pretty easy
to see I think.........

 

Bake, I'm not 100% sure Italian either. The more I thought about it, I believe the Italian maker's mark would be the number first followed by the letters. Gee, I would love to have seen a maker's mark in a distinct lozenge or pointed sided rectangle cartouche with possibly a star (1968 to now) or fasces (1934-1944) somewhere.

--- Susan