Odds and sods

This little piece (item 12 in my OP above) is the only one I don't think anyone has commented on. I actually rather like it, so here are a couple of closer views. Just over 6 cm long and no marks that I can see. The red stones are very dark and quite dull, at least in their present state of neglect.

 

Good thing you showed us. It is another southern German or Austrian piece. The stones are most likely garnets. Sometimes they use garnet glass.
Are there any marks?

 

None that I can see.

 

I agree, garnets in silver.

 

While I'm waiting for that UV lamp to make its way through the snow and reveal the truth about necklace 4, I thought I'd come back on a couple of the other pieces:

Could you share the characteristics that reveal it to be modern and Chinese? (I'm not disagreeing, as I really know nothing, just hoping to learn.) Here are a couple of better pictures:

I think it probably is. There's a tiny mark on what I believe is called the bail, but I haven't been able to photograph it yet. It might say 700 (in Eastern Arabic numerals) -- is that a variety of silver used in that part of the world?



I've also taken a closer look at bracelet 8, which for obvious reasons didn't cause a lot of excitement. The markings on the back say Miracle and I read in another thread here that their stuff could be collectible. Any thoughts, anyone?



Thanks for looking!

 

The glass pendant, I've seen literally hundreds of. That shape is typical as is the aventurine style sort of dichroic glass. Easily made en masse, the foldover loop and tear drop shape are the thing. Usually sold on ribbon or cord. Alibaba has lots. Pretty, often seen at craft fairs.

The Egyptian one is feasibly 700 but 800 is more likely. They can be a pig to read.

Miracle were and are a Birmingham based company who made Celtic and Scottish style costume jewellery. Base metal and glass made to simulate semi precious stones. They also use Mizpah as a tradename and some others. That's a nice one, dangle is unusual, but worn rather so may not be massive value.

 

Pendant examples:

https://www.beadpark.com/dichroic-g..._W9mdwkwPzxDc71P37pEJd2EUNG0fHQoaAmufEALw_wcB

 

There are also two marks on the bottom bar. If you clean and photograph them, we can take a look. As obb said, 800 is more likely. Egypt uses 600, 800, and 900.

 

Good spot. Lotus and or cat mark possibly.

 

Well spotted. You were both right about 800:



Any idea what the other mark is? I don't want to start with the amateur cleaning attempts right now...

 

I haven't been able to find it yet. It is usually the lotus or the cat, as obb said, depending on the period. This seems to be neither.

 

Give it a scrub with an old toothbrush, that'll get some crud out.

 

This source: http://www.silvercollection.it/EGYPTSILVERHALLMARKS.html suggests that fineness expressed in three digits means we're loooking at a date later than (possibly) 1975. In that case, the second mark could be the "October 1982" mark shown in the table near the bottom of the page I just linked to:

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That looks feasible.

 

I think you've got it!

 

#14 looks for all the world like pendants sold here, made of some variety of "plastic" definitely not glass. Not saying yours is such, just you need to be careful in describing.

 

Don't worry, Bakersgma -- I think Ownedbybear has pretty much convinced me that it's probably only worth around 40 cents.

It's fascinating to see how different these pieces are in terms of quality, 'story' and likely original price. They all lived in the same house, many of them for decades.

 

People buy stuff because it matches clothing, sometimes, so the cheapie pretty glass one might have been that. Or a gift.

 

Yes, both are possibilities.

(The person who owned these kept most of her brooches on the jackets they were worn with, which saved her time and would also have kept burglars busy. It might not have been so good for the jackets.)

 

The UV lamp came but doesn't work. Replacement requested. But I can still show off my other new toy investment here: my cheap digital "microscope" arrived today and I tried it out on those marks we were struggling with yesterday. This photo has not been tweaked or enhanced, just cropped: