Exquisite Silver Sterling Plaque of 'A Girl's First Communion'
Last Sunday I spent a few hours at a local pawn market, the reason to find something classy for my silver collection. The weather was very muggy, it drained half of my energy within an hour, after having a hydration break, I continued my search for the silver again.
Another hour passed by, but suddenly my eagle eyes felt something shiny under a pile of bronze cutlery, it was an exquisite piece of a plaque. I removed the cutlery and pulled out that magnificent plaque.
I observed it closely and found that it had Italian hallmarks engraved on its surface. After a little bargain, I took the plaque home for just $2. Let's have a look at this gleaming silver piece.
The Plaque Images
Obverse
Reverse
Characteristics and Specifics
Obverse Side
Let's have a close look at the plaque first to understand the details provided by the maker.
The Scene The golden chromed frame with ridged border is filled with sterling silver, the visible roughness on some parts of the plaque is due to improper handling and storage at the seller's warehouse. The artwork consists of a little girl praying with closed eyes and hands in a supplication position in front of a wine chalice and wheat, then there is a circular shape over the chalice mentioning the letter "JHS", JHS stands for 'Jesus Hominum Salvator' in the Latin language, a grapevine with leaves and grapes is featured around the girl from mid-right to left bottom along the ridged border.
The Italian Hallmarks Stricken Italian hallmarks can be seen perfectly seen on the right and below the grapevine, the first mark "925" inside an oval shape from bottom to top denotes the purity of the silver used in the plaque, which means that 92.5% is solid silver and 7.5% can be other metals or impurities.
The 'R' inside a square shape indicates the word "Riempito", which translates in English as "Filled". The fillings can be other metallic objects/elements for the support of the base, joint, and bonding of precious metals.
The "1÷2g" figure represents the application of fillings (R items) in an object having silver material.
Reverse Side
The backside of the plaque has a grain-finished surface. The back-stand is missing and a seller's sticker is placed on top for identification purposes.
"ITALY" and "CECCHIN" words are embossed at the bottom. Italy stands for the country of making, and Cecchini may be the maker of the plaque.
Dimensions
Look at the images for dimensions, I have placed the tape over the plaque to get an idea of its dimensions.
The height of the plaque is around 57mm.
The width of the plaque is around 41mm.
Final Words and Reference:
If you have been to Italy, especially Vatican City, such items can be found in souvenir shops, I have found one similar kind of item on eBay of similar maker Cecchini, which looks almost identical in shape, have a look at that plaque as well by clicking here.
If you want to learn more about Italian Hallmarks, kindly visit Silvercollection.it.
I hope you'll enjoy this post, if you want to add more information regarding this post, feel free to add a comment.
Links to my previous posts:
The Magnificent Medal of King George V and Queen Mary (1911)
Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Commemorative Coin 1977
100 Year Old FC CUP Sterling Silver Medal
Original written work and all images belong to the author 'emaxisonline'.
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