Featured Two thrift store finds and an online gamble

Good evening everyone,

I had a few thrift store finds this week and another online story to share with everyone.

Here's my finds below. The little baby fork is International prelude pattern. Found at a shop close to my home for a whopping 25 cents. The salt and pepper shaker are super cool, I found them in plain view at another local thrift store and the price was $2. But my favorite find of the bunch was a complete online gamble. The bowl/dish in the center of the photo was one that I find by searching far and wide on the internet, in fact I found the listing 5 states away from where I live...

This one was listed as "silver dish" for $10. Upon inquiring about the item, the owner couldn't find any marks on it to share with me. It just looked too good, so I worked out a deal where they would ship it to me for $17 total. Good gamble, as the little marks were hidden on the outside edge of the bowl. Can someone help me with the maker and the time period for this one?

 

the shakers....get me ...all shook up !!!!

 

The item you've asked about was imported - see the F in the lineup of marks. London, sterling, upper case T in a shield shape = 1894 assay year. The DF in a rectangle should be the "sponsor" for the import, but I cannot find a London registered smith with that mark. The design inside the bowl looks a bit Hanau-ish, so looking at the known Sponsors in London who often worked with Hanau firms may be fruitful.

 

This is a long shot, but it matches the time frame at least:

One site lists DF as Dora Fresco from the same time period in London. I couldn't find any other silver marks bearing the same name, but look a what I stumbled across on this site converted from Italian (it's a long shot...):

https://translate.google.com/transl...tail/person-6633/fresco-dora.html&prev=search

 

I assume this is the Dora Fresco you found in Italian? Note that we are referred to a Tobacconists section - which does not seem to relate at all to this bowl.

http://www.silvercollection.it/englishsilvermarksXD2.html

 

http://www.silvercollection.it/DICTIONARYTOBACCONISTD.html

Does give a date of 1893, but appears to have been registered on pipe mountings.

 

Yes, I found that as a possible match for the name, and then I tried to search for Dora Fresca, and the only reason I thought it could be a possibility was the date of the persons birth and the general location they were living. Like I said, it's a long shot...

 

PS, here's a few more marks I didn't notice before, do these look like anything significant/relevant?

 

Dutch marks?

 

Sorry, Nate. I have to get off for the night. (Been up since 5:30) I'll try again tomorrow.

 

? Papal States mark? I see keys..............

 

i see the number 3...with 3 keys..

 

Oh how very interesting. Could this further support my far fetched belief above about Dora Fresca since they were captured at the Swiss/Italian border???

 

Neat bowl and smart buy! I absolutely would have snapped that up at $17! Even if it turned out to not be silver it would have been worth it!

 

LOVELY Bowl !!! .. LOVE IT, ... Joy. !! ...

 

Savvy silver hunter MrNate. Enjoy!

 

Has nothing to do with the Papal States, as Bakersgma suggests, those are Dutch marks on the bowl - there are three export key marks struck, the '3' Komo mentions is an illusion, it's actually the leg and '1' on the .934 lion-rampant quality mark. It does look like the Dora Fresco sponsor mark illustrated, not sure there's any reason a tobacconist could not also act as an importer of other goods (is there evidence that the unfortunate Dora Fresco is the same person?) There may be other Dutch marks present, they tended to scatter them, perhaps even some pseudo-marks...

https://www.925-1000.com/Fnetherlands_Date_Code.html





~Cheryl

 

The Silvercollection shows Dora Fresco as a 'small worker', with the full marks showing the additional mark of London tobbaconist Loewe & Co. (known for their pipes).



Interestingly, this very young Dora Fresco, who met the same tragic end as the one linked by Nate, was born in The Hague, so someone of the same name and most likely same family can be connected at a later point to the Netherlands (this link broke my heart): https://www.ancientfaces.com/person/dora-fresco-birth-1940-death-1943/192708060


~Cheryl

 

Thank you for the tremendous research Cheryl, it’s pretty amazing to think that we can piece together parts of a puzzle whose parts were created 126 years ago.

 

Nice find on the bowl; a lot of people figure those ornate whatsits for plated yuck from some post-WWII American company. Not so much in this case....

And those salt and peppers ... eep. Were those made for the Sesquicentennial maybe? Or maybe George Washington's 200th birthday.