Interesting export silver bowl marked “silver”

[randazzo1]

Picked up this interesting hand pierced/cut silver bowl in thrift at lunch. It was $3.00, which is high for this place. It is marked “SILVER” on the back. That mark combined w the design makes me think 1900s Chinese. At 130 grams I’m happy regardless. But I’ve only see this mark on Jewelry - not on tableware, so cool as a new find. I think the store saw “silver” and decided to price it at $3 instead of the usual $1. Putting it with those American spoons for now. The chain in first photo is also silver, kind of an interesting design. Anyway happy hunting.

 

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[Hawks88]

That’s a good looking silver find. Good eye. Congrats

 

[tamrock]

I believe those are Chinese, but I've had other pieces mark just silver and they we're clearly Japanese. My guess is the purity is 90% to 95%

 

[trdhrdr007]

It's cool and it certainly looks like silver but I have to ask. Did you test it?

 

[randazzo1]

I believe those are Chinese, but I've had other pieces mark just silver and they we're clearly Japanese. My guess is the purity is 90% to 95%

Yeah it seems to be right around sterling. But I have trouble judging anything 90-100. It’s really only when you get down to 80% that I personally can see the difference in the color reactions. I think I’ll try to sell it first, though I fear it may ultimately end up in the melt pile.

 

[randazzo1]

It's cool and it certainly looks like silver but I have to ask. Did you test it?

Agreed. I did test it. I pretty much test everything except good coins that I think the testing might damage.

 

[JimDon]

I have Indian sterling pieces marked Silver but do believe this is Asian.

 

[randazzo1]

So my local expert here says yes it’s chinese, but much later - like 1960s and sold in China to tourists. Apparently the piercing is really shoddy from an art perspective and the silver is thin. I’ll post photos - it’s all crooked when you look close and it has sharp edges. He said it’s lacquered to prevent tarnish - but it’s a newer chemical lacquer and that’s how he knows and also that if it was from the hay day of export w that type of lacquer it would be stamped “china”. Not worth more than scrap unless u randomly find somebody who wants it for aesthetic reasons. Excellent info!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Nice find!

 

[trdhrdr007]

Agreed. I did test it. I pretty much test everything except good coins that I think the testing might damage.

I've had several older Chinese items marked silver (& nothing else) but they all had a bamboo and or dragon motif. I've never seen one like yours. Knowing yours was tested may give me the final piece of info needed to pull the trigger if/when I do. At the price you paid I would have bought based on experience. Unfortunately in my neck of the woods it would have been priced a good bit higher. Hard to buy items with a narrow margin when there's even a small amount of doubt.