Christofle silver played teapot

[Daphne 1]

Found this cootie at the garbage today!
I estimate around 1900. Can anyone confirm? And tell me more? Thanks in advance.

 

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[Molewacker]

Hey, Welcome!

That's a cutie cootie! Nice score!

 

[Daphne 1]

Hey, Welcome!

That's a cutie cootie! Nice score!

Poor little guy, glad I saved it from the trash. I need to polish it and then find a nice place for it in my apartment.

 

[Daphne 1]

Anyways, the pic of the underside is illegible.
It says 22 and 4. Serial nr is from circa 1902. Base metal is stated as metal blanc.
I don't know what the 22 and the 4 means. Each two is in a square.

 

[Red-Coat]

Welcome to Tnet.

In 1862, Christofle introduced two significant changes to their silver-plate marks. The ‘balance scale’ oval mark was enclosed within a square cartouche (previously it was just an oval); and the two ‘marque de grammage’ digits were given square cartouches (previously they were contained in diamond lozenges). Those two numbers are an indication of the amount of silver used for plating and appear as two separate digits. Not to be confused with year marks on some pieces where the two digits are within a single cartouche (originally diamond and then square).

Then, sometime after 1878 the diamond-lozenge for ‘Metal Blanc’ was added, although many pieces don’t have it. So, the full set of marks in use from c.1878 was as shown below, and that format was used until 1935.



There isn’t a comprehensive list of item numbers by year for Christofle as far as I’m aware, but some collectors have pieced together bits of information by correlating the numbers on pieces which are both numbered and dated. For example, Prof. David N. Nikogosyan (that picture above is from an article he wrote for ASCAS) estimated that between 1862-1898, the average production at going rate was probably around 50,000 pieces a year (he had a piece dated 1898 which was numbered 1776073).

If production continued at a similar rate thereafter then your 1998078 would be about 4-5 years later than 1776073, so c.1902 plus or minus a year or so would be about right.

[Note that the comments above should not necessarily be read as also applying to flatware cutlery]

 

[tamrock]

Good find, Christofle is somewhat collectible when it comes to silver plate.