The seller doesn't know if it's silver or not. He said $20
My guess it's a makers mark, which wouldn't be the kind of info to say if it's solid silver or silver plate or even silver at all. An example I have, that I thought might be solid silver when I bought it was this little picture frame. It has a lot about it that made me believe it might be solid silver, such as the word TAXCO and MEXICO and a well known silversmith of LOS CASTILLO, but I was unfamiliar with this word, Plpterdo. Found out after I paid 5 bucks it meant plated. Unless someone here can dig out of a reference book or find anything online what those marks really stand for, I'm in the dark as if what you're thinking of spending $20.00 on might really be worth it. A full image of this picture frame your thinking about buying might lead me to think otherwise.
Well I'm headed back to the place today and I'll take a better picture then. I may just buy it for the heck of it, we'll see.
Yeah, it may be something special and a nice piece. The look of the metal in the picture and how it's deeply stamped does look as if it's possibly silver. Look it over real good, as there may be a mark that does state it being silver, like maybe faint .800 or .835 as the Germans did. Very often folks post just a mark thinking that's all that's needed to identify something, but posting the whole item, can maybe trigger a thought to someone looking at it and think, that's the kind of work by maybe this artist or recognize a particular style of what's typically done in a region of this country. They're like automobiles. You can generally see the influences in design in a car from the US, Germany, Japan or Italy at first glance.
Good point. The store was closed yesterday because the owner was getting heart surgery, so I won't be able to go get a better picture for at least a week.
