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Not only were these marks totally nonsensical to her at the time, but they weredispersed throughout the piece. They were interspersed at various parts of theunderside, and looked like initials with a flower, a woman's head, a bearded man'sface and other strange looking ciphers. The first thing Marla thought was to useGoogle and search for all these symbols. But how do you even begin describing allthese little images using words and terms, most of which can only be communicatedusing convoluted and long sentences? She was stuck.
After spending countless frustrating hours On-line, but driven by her intuition thatthere must be a story in these silver marks, she stumbled upon Marks4Antiques.com. She knew that her cruet set was made mostly of silver, so she thought "if I could atleast identify the silver marks, I may have a starting point for more research...". She was right!
Marks4Antiques.com displays all antiques marks in shape categories. So, if a marklooks like a ship, then all marks that look like a ship or a boat, are displayed onone page. If a mark looks like a crown, all marks that look like a crown are listedon one page. The same with animals, flowers, crests, letters and a number of othershape categories. This pictorial method makes it easy to find antiques marks byjust looking at images and comparing them.
Well, lo and behold, there they were! All of her marks were listed in their shapecategories for silver marks and Marla was able to quickly determine that her $10Huilier was actually made in France during the early 18th century and specificallysigned by one of the most sought after silversmiths of that era, Paul De Lamerie ca1713 - 1732.
Furthermore, the other silver symbols were the .950 Sterling Silver mark for Franceduring that period and another mark was like a "stamp of approval" by theAssociation of Silver & Gold Smiths of Paris, France. Marla sold this cleaned upand now identified Huilier for $850. What a find!!
"We get a lot of similar success stories from many of our members" said Lisa Marionof Marks4Antiques.com. "Most of our members are online sellers, antiques dealers orappraisers. We also have several reputable auction houses that constantly use ourdatabases of antiques marks, whether it is for ceramics marks or silver & jewelrymarks, because they know that identifying and describing items accurately, increasestheir chance of attaining higher prices during a sale".
Based on statistics of over 5,000 items sold on eBay and other online venues, it hasbeen determined that items listed with the correct attribution and identity, soldfor prices that were at least 60% higher and sold 4 times faster than items thatwere only generically described. This is partly because most online users searchfor items by name. In most cases, they know what they want and look for a specificmaker. For this reason, items that include their actual origin or maker in thetitle or description, come up on these searches more prominently and consistentlyfetch more money.
For example, a "Flow Blue Plate" may bring $20 - $60 on eBay, if lucky. Yet a"Minton Flow Blue Plate ca 1860s" will probably sell for at least $50 - $100 andperhaps more. It will also come up near the top during a search for a buyer that isspecifically looking for a Minton Flow Blue plate. "I know it makes sense" LisaMarion from Marks4Antiques.com continued, "but you'd be surprised how many times welook on eBay and items that are clearly marked and easily identifiable, sell for amere fraction of what they are worth because the seller did not attribute the itemto a specific maker. This may be a great bargain for those that have the time tolook through every listing in a certain category, but it is certainly not fair tothe Sellers".
Accredited media interested in discussing this topic in more detail are encouragedto schedule an interview by sending their request to Contact@Marks4Antiques.com orvisit their Web site at Marks4Antique.com
About Marks4Antiques.comMarks4Antiq ues.com was created to help Collectors and Dealers to research Antiques &Collectibles. The successful launch of Marks4Ceramics.com in 2004 was quicklyfollowed by Marks4Silver.com in 2006 and then Values4Antiques.com this year. Allwebsites were designed for use online in order to accommodate the growing number ofmobile Antiques and Collectibles Dealers that roam the country to different Auctionsor Shows and those that sell or buy online (eBay etc). Subscribing to any of thewebsites provides easy and fast pictorial methods of identifying and self-appraisingitems. An active member can also contact the experts of each website for personalassistance when a mark is not already in the database at no additional cost. Tofacilitate an unbiased Antiques Research & Evaluation environment, no Trade (buyingor selling) of items is allowed through these sites as they are totally dedicated toResearch. All staff are avid Collectors, Appraisers and professional Dealers. Thecompany is owned and operated in the State of California, USA
