Home >> Collecting >> Antiques

How to Identify the Hallmark on a Silver Bowl

Many American silver manufacturers use the maker's name written in English, along with the metal content. The fineness of the metal has been required since 1906. Hallmarks are of British origin, used in England and France since the 14th century, according to the Modern Silver website. Hallmarks are most common on foreign silver and may be a mystery without research. You can identify the hallmark on a silver bowl with some sleuthing.

Instructions

- 1
  Write out what you know from the marks and the bowl. Determine the country of origin, the language on the bottom and the metal content, if possible. Encoding metal content and date information in the hallmarks is common, or it may be separate from the marks.
- 2
  Draw the marks on a piece of paper if they are not easy to see on the bowl, as you will be using them along with the computer. Place this paper where you can glance at it from the keyboard.
- 3
  Check a website with basic hallmarks first to see if you can identify your bowl quickly. If you do not know the country of origin, use a website like Modern Silver to review the hallmarks of different countries for comparison.
- 4
  Look at a website like 925-1000 to check marks by country, if you know the country of origin and it is not an American bowl. If the item is American, use the online encyclopedia of American silver marks at the Silver Collecting website. English silver marks are available at Silver Collecting too. This can save hours of searching through marks of all countries.
- 5
  Guess at the origin if you are not successful in locating the marks in American or English silver marks. Try to determine if the language looks Cyrillic, oriental or Persian before starting to search for the hallmarks of other countries. Attempt to locate the hallmark on your bowl with the most reasonable country of origin.
- 6
  Ask for assistance in a silver forum as a last resort. Take a close-up photo of the marks and the item and place the photos on a free picture-hosting site. Link to the photos and follow the forum rules. 925-1000 has a silver forum for identification assistance. Alternatively, take the bowl to a collectibles mall or large antiques shop and ask for help.

Antiques