Dear Smart Precious Metal and Gem people. Thank you for the opportunity to ask this question. I have a gorgeous pair of 'eye of Isis' drop earrings in high carat gold, lapis, turquoise and carnelian. They have both maker's marks and hallmarks - clearly hierolglyphs. Can anyone help identify when they were made and by which atelier? Yes, I have photos but the seem to be too big to upload - email address removed by administrator will get them emailed to you. Many thanks, Teresa
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 11:24 am Posts: 7523 Location: Rome, Italy
hi Teresa and welcome to the forum,
i've moved your post here and deleted your email address cos it's not careful to share sensible infos in a public space.... ..please try to resize your pics and post them here. ciao alberto
Thank you Alberto. The problem I am sure will be that in making the images small the hieroglyphs will be quite impossible for anyone to make out. I now understand that the Cairo Assay office was established sometime during 1906. I will try again later when I am back on my computer and not my mobile phone. Teresa
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:42 pm Posts: 2846 Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
ThistleCEO wrote:
Dear Smart Precious Metal and Gem people. Thank you for the opportunity to ask this question. I have a gorgeous pair of 'eye of Isis' drop earrings in high carat gold, lapis, turquoise and carnelian. They have both maker's marks and hallmarks - clearly hierolglyphs. Can anyone help identify when they were made and by which atelier? Yes, I have photos but the seem to be too big to upload - email address removed by administrator will get them emailed to you. Many thanks, Teresa
I don't think that the Egyptian Assay office used Heiroglyphics. However, if you can post a pic of the marks here, I can forward them to an Egyptian jeweler friend who might be able to tell us what they indicate.
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2007 3:42 pm Posts: 4091 Location: the Netherlands
Hi Teresa,
since this was too hard a nut for me to crack I asked Danusia of HRI what she could make of it. Below is her reply:
Quote:
Dear Teresa,
As researcher for the Hallmark Research Institute, I am currently working with the Egyptian Assay Office to clarify the hallmarking system of Egypt as a part of the research for our next book World Hallmarks, Vol II. It is a slow process but we are making head way and just so happen to be in discussion on this very date mark. Below is the summary of your "hieroglyphics" as we have understand them to be at this point...
Egypt has been hallmarking since 1916. The three part sequential method of hallmarking has been in continued use since that time. ► The first mark on the left is the karatage of the piece. The Arabic numbers ١٨ represent the fineness of 18k or 750. Above the numbers is the symbol of the assay office that marked the piece which appears to be Cairo. ► The second mark is the ibis which is the mark for gold. ► The final mark on the right is the date mark ح that was first used in 1946-1947 and as the use of the alphabet came full circle, this letter was used again from 1996 to 2001.
since this was too hard a nut for me to crack I asked Danusia of HRI what she could make of it. Below is her reply:
Quote:
Dear Teresa,
As researcher for the Hallmark Research Institute, I am currently working with the Egyptian Assay Office to clarify the hallmarking system of Egypt as a part of the research for our next book World Hallmarks, Vol II. It is a slow process but we are making head way and just so happen to be in discussion on this very date mark. Below is the summary of your "hieroglyphics" as we have understand them to be at this point...
Egypt has been hallmarking since 1916. The three part sequential method of hallmarking has been in continued use since that time. ► The first mark on the left is the karatage of the piece. The Arabic numbers ١٨ represent the fineness of 18k or 750. Above the numbers is the symbol of the assay office that marked the piece which appears to be Cairo. ► The second mark is the ibis which is the mark for gold. ► The final mark on the right is the date mark ح that was first used in 1946-1947 and as the use of the alphabet came full circle, this letter was used again from 1996 to 2001.
Hope that helps!
Cheers! DNL
Thanks to all! Fascinating.
Egypt, after centuries as a part of the Ottoman (Turk) Empire, became a British Protectorate in 1914. It had that status until 1922, when it became an independent state.
The hall-marking system introduced in 1916 by Egypt followed closely the British hallmarking practice of punches for fineness, assay 'hall' and year of assay (not necessarily the year of manufacture). I'd expect the relevant law to have been of similar derivation. As the Egyptian hallmarking practice becomes older, it will be interesting to see how they choose to differentiate between date cycles. Shape of the punches perhaps?
Dear Frank and Connie and all, - I have another image, one a little clearer of the marker's mark posted here: http://profile.imageshack.us/user/thistleceo/ which may assist in finding out who actually made my earrings. Thanks, Teresa
Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:23 am Posts: 923 Location: NYC
there are Arabic Number and Characters not hieroglyph!!! there is a number "18" which is probably for Gold (750K) also using animal is common among Hallmarks and doesn't necessary means its Egyptian i can't read other Characters clearly but they are like (J) and (Mo) in English, i'd wish i could help more.
Thank you, the question of the hallmarks was previously and most satisfactorily answers the biggest issue now is decipher the marker mark which is in the photo (hyperlink) posted in my last message.
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