✅ SOLVED Hallmark/ makers mark ID

[Carolinabusguy]

Good evening everyone
Found a 14k gold shelled ring today. Not pure gold but still always exciting to see them
Pop up. The ring has a very unique looking hallmark ? Looks like a wolf head ? Thought if I could track it down might help with IDing the age Thanks everyone and keep swinging

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[Mackaydon]

Interesting find.
Reminds me of a boar's head hallmark.
Per Wiki:
What does 1/30 14K mean on a ring?




The 1/30th has to be there to denote the percentage of the object that is actually 14k gold. Basically, a thin sheet of 14k gold was rolled out to be very thin. Think of it as some thickness of gold leaf. Then it was affixed to the outer surface of a different, non-gold base metal. It's usually attached via heating.
Don....

 

[Red-Coat]

I think you’ll find that’s an eagle’s head (with hooked beak) sandwiched between two inward-pointing arrows. That’s one of many marks used by Ostby & Barton of Providence, Rhode Island.

The company was founded in 1879 but Englehart Ostby went down with the Titanic in 1912 when he was returning from a trip to Europe. The company went on to become the world’s largest manufacturer of rings and continued manufacturing under that name until the 1950s but this is, I think, a pre-1912 mark. O&B used multiple marks with a number of stylistic variations and they aren’t all well-documented. Over the years they produced rings to a wide variety of standards to suit all pockets including: full gold in 10k and above; so called ‘solid gold’ but with a purity below 10k; filled gold with and without a karat mark; and electro-plated.

The most well-documented ‘eagle with arrows’ mark has the eagle facing to the left, like this:



Some sources claim that when it faces the other way, it’s because the mark is upside down and still resembles an eagle if you rotate it through 180 degrees. I think that’s wrong and that the right-facing eagle was used during a particular, but short, time period and probably only on gold fill. I haven’t seen it on any other standard. Close examination supports the eagle being intentionally right-facing (and often with embellishment on the arrows, which are usually plainer when the eagle faces the other way), as on this ring:



Since the mark has always been accompanied by a karat mark for the purity of the plate on the gold fill for the examples I’ve seen, then I think it was probably in use from around 1906 until Ostby’s death in 1912. From 1906 onwards the US Silver & Gold Stamping Act curtailed the production of cheap ‘solid gold’ rings that were below 10k and generally tightened up the way in which karat marks needed to be applied to gold fill.

 

[Mackaydon]

Interesting; I see a boar's head facing left, but I can also imagine an eagle's head facing right.
I never did pass a Rorschach test.
Don....

 

[Carolinabusguy]

Thank you

I think you?ll find that?s an eagle?s head (with hooked beak) sandwiched between two inward-pointing arrows. That?s one of many marks used by Ostby & Barton of Providence, Rhode Island.

The company was founded in 1879 but Englehart Ostby went down with the Titanic in 1912 when he was returning from a trip to Europe. The company went on to become the world?s largest manufacturer of rings and continued manufacturing under that name until the 1950s but this is, I think, a pre-1912 mark. O&B used multiple marks with a number of stylistic variations and they aren?t all well-documented. Over the years they produced rings to a wide variety of standards to suit all pockets including: full gold in 10k and above; so called ?solid gold? but with a purity below 10k; filled gold with and without a karat mark; and electro-plated.

The most well-documented ?eagle with arrows? mark has the eagle facing to the left, like this:

View attachment 1942654

Some sources claim that when it faces the other way, it?s because the mark is upside down and still resembles an eagle if you rotate it through 180 degrees. I think that?s wrong and that the right-facing eagle was used during a particular, but short, time period and probably only on gold fill. I haven?t seen it on any other standard. Close examination supports the eagle being intentionally right-facing (and often with embellishment on the arrows, which are usually plainer when the eagle faces the other way), as on this ring:

View attachment 1942655

Since the mark has always been accompanied by a karat mark for the purity of the plate on the gold fill for the examples I?ve seen, then I think it was probably in use from around 1906 until Ostby?s death in 1912. From 1906 onwards the US Silver & Gold Stamping Act curtailed the production of cheap ?solid gold? rings that were below 10k and generally tightened up the way in which karat marks needed to be applied to gold fill.

Amazing information WOW that made me like the little old ring a lot more ! Treasurenet members the beat , never fail!!

 

[invent4hir]

Red-Coat & Don, thanks for the education and ID!