Giant Horse Head Covered in Pure .999 Silver

[tamrock]

I checked this piece out yesterday at my local antique shop. It's made in Mexico by Plata Artistica. The price was $250. if I recall. There's really no telling how much less than paper thin silver is covering the outer area of this sculpture would yield? It's around 2 ft tall and weighted maybe 20 to 25 + pounds. I'm seeing a real mix of prices sellers are getting and asking for these type of art. Small sculptures are less than $50.and large ones like this with a price over a grand. I didn't buy it, but my hunch is at $250. it very well might sell for twice that? Still it seems like a pig in a poke to throw down their asking price on it. I do think they would bargain on it though.

 

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[ARC]

Well I know one thing...

If it were solid silver...

You would have gladly handed over 250 so quick your wallet would have had finger skidmarks.

Tell me I am wrong :P

 

[tamrock]

No kidding. Looks like the kinda thing an early 1990s home owner with the BMW 850 in the drive would have in their home entertainment room.

 

[JimDon]

Plata means Silver in Spanish. It could be pure silver!!! Do a little more research. Their website says: WE ARE MANUFACTURERS OF SILVER SCULPTURES .999 THE PUREST EXISTING COMBINED WITH COPPER AND 24 K GOLD PLATE. WE HAVE GREAT MEXICAN SCULPTORS AND CRAFTSMEN HAVING 350 MODELS, AMONG THEM ANIMALS, ART, WE ENHANCED PART OF OUR PREVIOUS ROOTS ARRAY. OUR WORKS OF ART ARE MANUFACTURED WITH HIGH QUALITY CONTROL AND UNIQUE DESIGNS. SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION SCULPTURES ARE SERIES AND WE GRANT A CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY. WE APPLY A LACQUER PROTECTION TO ALL OUR PRODUCTS TO PREVENT OXIDATION AND SO YOU WILL NEVER HAVE TO POLISH. SPECIAL DESIGNS ARE MADE.

 

[JimDon]

Plata means Silver in Spanish. It could be pure silver!!! Do a little more research. Their website says: WE ARE MANUFACTURERS OF SILVER SCULPTURES .999 THE PUREST EXISTING COMBINED WITH COPPER AND 24 K GOLD PLATE. WE HAVE GREAT MEXICAN SCULPTORS AND CRAFTSMEN HAVING 350 MODELS, AMONG THEM ANIMALS, ART, WE ENHANCED PART OF OUR PREVIOUS ROOTS ARRAY. OUR WORKS OF ART ARE MANUFACTURED WITH HIGH QUALITY CONTROL AND UNIQUE DESIGNS. SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION SCULPTURES ARE SERIES AND WE GRANT A CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY. WE APPLY A LACQUER PROTECTION TO ALL OUR PRODUCTS TO PREVENT OXIDATION AND SO YOU WILL NEVER HAVE TO POLISH. SPECIAL DESIGNS ARE MADE.

I should note when I see eBay sellers selling it they claim it to be plated it but when you see galleries selling it it is listed as pure silver. https://gallery-667.myshopify.com/products/999-sterling-silver-plata-artistica-bear-statue.

 

[Holt0222]

I will say the gallery price is most defiantly not pure solid silver. If it was we would be looking at a price of $3,069 in melt value alone.

 

[Red-Coat]

There are some ‘terminological inexactitudes’ at play here.

The ‘Plata Artistica’ pieces are made by Korpograf S.A de C.V. in Mexico City. There’s another factory in Italy producing similar works and probably others too. I don’t know the exact process used by Korpograf, but the usual technology is a two-stage depositional process for coating non-metallic pieces with silver. It’s arguable whether or not ‘plated’ is unambiguously the correct term but that’s effectively what it is… a plating process, but not onto a metallic substrate.

The underlaying substrate is usually a resin plastic known as an ‘SL’ or ‘SLA’ (or ‘stereolithographic’). You start by moulding (these days you can also use 3D-printing) the plastic as a sculptural piece (it can be hollow if desired). You then chemically treat it to change the porosity and adhesivity of the surface to make it suitable for deposition of silver. Because the plastic is not electrically conductive, the first stage of deposition is ‘electroless’ by chemical action in the plating bath with no current applied. You can also promote the process with ultra-violet light. Once you have enough silver deposited on the surface you can then apply a current and continue the process to build up a thicker layer of silver by conventional electro-plating. In both phases of the process, the silver will be pure silver. All chemical and electro-chemical processes generate pure silver.

If one tried to put a value on the pure silver of any particular piece (as opposed to its artistic value as a ‘sculptural’ work) that would be impossible. Only the manufacturer would know what thickness and weight of silver had been applied. It might well be thicker than the silver layer you get on say an electroplated candlestick, but still a very small proportion of the total weight.

 

[tamrock]

I bought this paperweight, which I believe it was similar in construction to this big horse sculpture. This paperweight had a little separation of the thin silver skin on the base and rubbing my finger over it, it felt like it was a bit thinner than aluminum foil. I gave this paperweight to my wife to put on her desk at work. I guess it had enough silver to mark with .925, but there probably wasn't much more than a few grams overlay on it.

 

[Red-Coat]

Yes, that paperweight is silver coated and (unless fake) the 925 mark refers only to the purity of the coating, not whatever is beneath it. The substrate below is likely resin, but the processes I referred to above do not give you .925 silver. Chemical or electrical deposition give you 'pure' silver. Two possibilities: either the coating was a sheet of sterling silver foil/leaf that has been pushed over the globe by burnishing; or it was produced by deposition and has deliberately been assayed to a lower standard. Some makers ask for that rather than risk a piece failing assay by a narrow margin as a result of unintended impurities.

Does the globe have an upper area above the brickwork that looks like an old city perched on a hill... and perhaps one or two arched doorways in the brickwork in areas not visible in your picture?

 

[tamrock]

It's like the old city of Jerusalem. I gave it to my wife because she found a small margin of her DNA is Sephardic Jew. Now she's Jewish.

 

[Red-Coat]

It's like the old city of Jerusalem.

That's exactly what it is. They're generally known as "Globes of Jerusalem" and sold as souvenirs. Most of them are made by a company called 'Karshi', who have had a workshop adjacent to the city walls since 1955 but yours is by another maker for which I don't recognise the mark.

 

[randazzo1]

No kidding. Looks like the kinda thing an early 1990s home owner with the BMW 850 in the drive would have in their home entertainment room.

Ahahaha