Cigarette lighters are infinitely collectible. Dunhill, Zippo, Ronson, Parker, and S.T. Dupont, to name but a few, are all big names in the world of antique and vintage cigarette lighters, which dominated the fashion accessories scene during the first half of the 20th century.
Along with all these big names were countless smaller names, makers and dealers, which produced cigarette lighters, both great and small, for every possible consumer. Men, women, for at-home, for out-and-about, for travel, for commemoration, graduation, and celebration.
One of the more common types of lighters were table-lighters.
Table-lighters were larger, heavier cigarette lighters, not designed for portability, but rather, to sit or stand on a coffee-table, a counter, or a desk, and serve as a convenience for guests and visitors who needed a ready flame to light their cigars, cigarettes, pipes, and candles.
Table-lighters varied from the mundane, and even the homemade, all the way to flashy examples in gilt brass, cut glass, and even solid silver.
An Antique Silver Table-Lighter
I picked up this lovely antique example of a silver table-lighter about a month ago, on eBay. I’ve always wanted a table-lighter, especially a silver one, to add to my modest collection of antique lighters. Some lighters, especially those made by famous names like Dunhill, Cartier, and S.T. Dupont, can cost an absolute fortune, but there are also a lot of table-lighters…even quite fancy ones…which can be picked up for a surprisingly small amount of money. And this lighter is the perfect example of that.
Don’t forget that lighters of all kinds used to be extremely common not that long ago, and that lighters of all styles and price-points were manufactured. People like to collect lighters because they are small, portable, easily stored, easily displayed, they have FIIIIIRE!! (always cool, right??) and they’re…usually…a lot cheaper than most other types of collectibles out there.
Of course, this isn’t true of all lighters, or all collectibles, prices fluctuate all the time, but the great thing about the enormous variety is that you can usually – if you’re very patient – find what should probably be quite expensive pieces – for relatively modest outlay.
Such was the case with the lighter in this post.
Where Did the Lighter Come From?
The lighter is made of what’s called Yogya silver, which is the style of silverware manufactured in Indonesia in the early to mid 20th century. Thanks to the Great Depression, traditional Indonesian silversmithing crafts were in danger of dying out, when the Dutch realised that there could be an enormous market for traditional style Indonesian silverware in Europe. All kinds of things – tea-sets, cigarette lighters, trays, plates, platters, bowls, canisters, cigarette-cases, and so much more, were manufactured in Indonesia during this time, between the late 1920s through to after WWII, and shipped to the Netherlands for sale.
It gave the Dutch a new area of merchandise to purchase, and it gave the Indonesians a new market for their products – it was a win-win!
This lighter would’ve been made in Indonesia in the early 1900s, where it was hallmarked, and then either sold locally to people living in Malaya, Singapore, or Indonesia, or else shipped to the Netherlands for sale in Europe.
What is the Lighter Made Of?
The lighter is manufactured from 800 silver – which is a more common silver standard than you might expect, if all you’ve ever seen is sterling. 800 silver was stronger, having a higher concentration of copper, without also sacrificing the beautiful shimmer that silver is capable of producing when polished.
How does the Lighter Work?
The lighter is broadly made of three components: The base, or body, the lighter and reservoir, and finally, the lid or cap on top.
It functions the same as most lighters of the era will do:
The base and the reservoir are filled with cotton wool, and then soaked in lighter fluid. The lighter is slid over the top, and the wick is left to soak up the fluid in the cotton-balls through capillary action.
Then the cap is removed from the top of the lighter, and the flint-wheel is rotated at speed. This generates sparks which, under ideal circumstances, will spark the flint, and ignite the fuel-soaked wick housed inside the silver wick-chimney, which exists to protect the flame and the wick from outside influences (mostly wind).
When you’re done, you simply extinguish the flame by sliding the cap back over the top of the lighter to snuff the flame. You can of course, blow it out, too, but using the cap is a lot easier.
I Want One! Are they Hard to Find?
Yes…and…no.
They’re actually fairly common (remember, they were basically mass-produced in silver, for export), but they were also so common that they weren’t exactly treated very well. I’ve seen loads of them (just in the time when I was searching, I saw at least four or five of them on eBay!!), but they’re often in really rough shape. The snuffer-caps are cracked, the wick-chimneys are broken off, they’re covered in dents… they have all manner of issues!!
By comparison, the one I have is all-intact and all complete and correct. There were one or two minor dents, easily removed, but no other serious damage. If you do decide to go after something like this, and end up buying a damaged one, make sure you know a decent jeweler or silversmith who can repair it for you. Prices for these types of lighters vary enormously, from north of $1,000 to under $200, and everywhere in between.
Closing Remarks
Antique lighters are fun to collect, and there’s an infinite variety of them out there, of all shapes, sizes, operation methods, and price-points. You can find some truly weird and wonderful types, if you have the patience to search, and know how to repair them. Most repairs are pretty easy to make (they’re not complicated machines, for the most part) and you can find lighters almost anywhere, from charity shops to flea-markets, antiques shops to an endless variety from online sellers.
The Peranakan or Straits-Born Chinese are well-known for the intricacy of the items and accessories which were used in their homes and daily lives, from the batik-patterned sarongs, shirts, and blouses, to the brightly coloured porcelain crockery used in their dining rooms, and the pastel paint-schemes of traditional Peranakan townhouses.
One area of Peranakan craftsmanship which is particularly prized is traditional “Baba Silverware”, as it’s called. The items of metalware used in a Straits-Chinese home which were manufactured by Peranakan silversmiths and goldsmiths in Singapore, Malaya, Indonesia and the southern part of Thailand, in the 1800s and early 1900s.
Peranakan silverware and goldware covered all kinds of areas, from chopsticks to curtain-hooks, belts to keychains, kebaya brooches (“kerongsang”), hairpins (“cucuk sanggul”), jewelry, and even little silver and gold mesh purses. And even something like this…
Peranakan Silver Bolster Plates
In traditional Peranakan marriage-beds, a long tubular pillow with a circular or rectangular cross-section, known as a bolster – or more colloquially as a “Dutch Wife” – was a common feature. They served as shared head-pillows for the husband and wife when in bed, or as a body-pillow when one party of the couple was sleeping alone without the other (hence the ‘wife’ nickname, since it took the place of the absent spouse).
In Peranakan families, bolster pillows, which were so heavily associated with the marriage bed, were often given as gifts to newlyweds upon their wedding days. The idea was that the large bolster stretching across the bed symbolised the joining of two families, and the union of one couple.
As they were intended as wedding-gifts, the bolsters were often adorned with sterling silver decorative end-plates which were sewn onto the small panels at either end of the bolster. These panels might be purely decorative, and carry no further significance, or they might, as in this case, hold extra symbolism connected with a healthful, happy, and hopefully, long-lasting marriage.
The decorations on this particular set of bolster-plates hold rather more significance than mere ornamentation, and are actually meant to be symbolic of longevity (the eternal phoenix), wealth, or prosperity (the peonies) and beauty, purity, and status (the peacock) – all things that one would want in a happy marriage!
What is the Point of Silver Bolster Plates?
…ehm…nothing…really.
And yes, I’m being absolutely serious when I say that.
Absolutely nothing.
These thin, embossed sheets of silver were added to bolsters purely for the sake of decoration. They were not there to protect the fabric, to reinforce the seams, to guard against rubbing or wear…they served exactly NO practical purpose whatsoever! Their only function was decorative – to look nice on the bed, and to embellish the bed-linens of the newlywed couple. Awwww!!
How are they Made?
Made of thin sheets or plates of solid silver, bolster plates came in a variety of shapes. The most common ones are rectangular, circular, or hexagonal or octagonal. They’re either left as plain silver, or are further embellished with gilding.
Once the design has been traced on the silver plates, then it’s the job of the silversmith to work it into the metal. In most cases, this was done through what the French call “repousse” – literally pressing-out the design from the back, to the front of the piece, using a punch and hammer to work the silver into shape. It’s a very slow, delicate, fiddly task, that requires the metal to be annealed and cooled several times to deal with work-hardening, when the metal becomes brittle from too much pounding.
Once the design had been finalised and hammered out into the silver, the final step was to punch the holes all around the borders of the two plates, one for each side of the bolster. The holes are, of course, to pass the needle and thread through, so that the plates can be sewn onto the ends of the bolster.
Where Did They Come From?
This set of plates was purchased from a dealer at the local flea-market who sold all kinds of Asian antiques. I recognised the pieces at once for what they were, and asked about their history. They were originally from Georgetown, in Penang, off the west coast of Malaysia, which only doubly-confirmed that I knew what they were. This makes a lot of sense – Penang was a big Peranakan stronghold back in the day with a vibrant community – so things like silver bolster plates would definitely be found there.
Displaying the Bolster Plates
After I got the two silver plates home – which was done very delicately, I might add – then I had to figure out how to display them. First step was to straighten them out, make sure they were flat and even, and then to polish them – not too much – but enough to lift the surface tarnish and give the silver crisp, lustrous glow.
Once that was done, the final step was to find some way of both displaying them and protecting them in a practical manner. In the end, I settled on just simply framing the plates inside a standard, glass-fronted picture-frame – once I found one which was of a suitable size, of course. I centered them as best I could, and because I didn’t want to potentially damage them any further, I left it up to friction (and there’s plenty of that!) to hold the plates in place, inside the frame.
If you wait long enough, almost anything will show up at the flea-market – even stuff you might never imagine.
I bought this really nifty silver belt from one of the regular dealers at my local market. Lovely person, beautiful stuff for sale…but that didn’t mean they had a clue about what this item was. But then, with something like this, that’s not very surprising.
Belts worn by the Peranakan-Chinese (both men and women, although it was more common with women) were largely made of high-grade silver, high-grade gold, or else cheap, nickel-silver, for costume jewelry. They were found up and down the Malay peninsula, from southern Thailand or Siam, through Malaysia, Singapore, and around the Indonesian Islands.
Because of this wide spread, there are many different styles of Peranakan belts. Panel-belts, layered belts, chain belts, coin belts, mesh belts…there are even Peranakan belts which aren’t silver at all (except, perhaps for the buckle) – but are instead, made of the same beadwork embroidery which was used to produce Peranakan slippers, handbags and other such decorative items.
My friend at the market didn’t know anything about this belt. It was surmised that it was made in China during the Qing Dynasty, that it was an export-piece, and that it was solid silver…and that was all they knew, despite my questioning.
I examined the belt and the more I looked at it and how it was made, and what it was made of (if, indeed, that was true), the more I began to doubt the idea that this was made in China, for foreign export. Yes, it has Chinese hallmarks on it, but just because marks are in Chinese doesn’t mean it was made there…or even that it’s silver.
For one thing, Qing-Dynasty Chinese export-silver was mostly sold to the European and North American markets. I’ve never heard of a Chinese export-silver belt. Trays, tea-sets, coffee-sets, silverware dinner-sets, walking-stick handles, cigar/cigarette cases, even cruet-sets, sure…but belts? Eeehh…never.
Not saying they don’t exist, but in 20 years of messing around with antiques, and ten years of selling them, I’ve never heard of such a thing.
Despite these misgivings, I decided to buy the belt. It was offered at a good price, so I bought it on the off-chance that it might be something more than it seemed.
Researching the Belt
I started by looking up Chinese export-silver belts, and as I initially expected – there really wasn’t much to be found. The only silver belts I could find with an even tangential link to anything approaching China, were those manufactured, and worn, by the Straits-Chinese…also known as the Peranakan. Then I started finding belts almost identical to mine, which I started recognising as distinctly Peranakan styles…which made me stop and think.
From the moment of purchasing the belt, I hadn’t really considered the possibility that the belt was Peranakan – it just seemed an idea too far-fetched to be true, but now I began thinking that perhaps it was!
Increasingly curious about this turn of events, I started asking questions from other dealers and collectors online, who all confirmed my suspicions, but I still had one area of uncertainty, which was the Chinese hallmark stamped into the belt.
Researching the Hallmark
There were what appeared to be two hallmarks on the belt, both stamped on the back of the buckle. The only mark which was halfway recognisable was a two-character mark, which after researching, I found was the Chinese mark of “Zu Yin” (“Pure Silver”). The problem is that Chinese silver marks like this can (and are) faked, and can be applied to other things like pewter or nickel to con unsuspecting buyers. Because of that, I wasn’t going to be sure about anything without getting the belt assayed, first.
To allay all doubts, I took the belt to a jeweler I know, for a professional opinion. He conducted a couple of small, non-invasive tests and was sure the belt was 93.5% silver – 1% higher than sterling. Not exactly the “pure silver” of the hallmark, but high enough to dispel any lingering concerns I had!
Where did the Belt Come From?
To sum up, all indications are that the belt was manufactured in southern Thailand (indicated by the style of the buckle, and belt-strap), by a Peranakan-Chinese silversmith (indicated by the Chinese hallmarks), during the late 1800s (suggested by the size of the belt and the purity of the silver). It truly is a beautiful piece of history, and a fascinating Peranakan cultural artifact, which I’m so glad to add to my collection, small as that collection may be.
The things you find at the flea-market, eh? Secondhand jeans, old books, records, kids’ toys, jewelry, furniture, household kitsch, 17th century silverware!…
Wait what?
Mmmhmm!!
Pay attention, kids, and you really can find just about anything!
I picked up this, at-first, extremely unassuming spoon at the flea-market for slightly-more than mere pocket-change. The dealer knew little-enough about it, and a lot of that was sheer guesswork on his part. He believed it could be extremely old, made of silver, likely English…and…that…was really the fullest extent of his knowledge. And because of that, he let me have it cheap!
Looking for more information, I sought the opinion of other antiques dealers at the market, and they were all of the opinion that the shape, style, condition of the silver, and other indicators (I’ll get to those in a minute, I promise!) all pointed to this being a very, very, very old – likely English – solid silver spoon, dating to the last decade of the 17th century – something which I more-or-less confirmed from subsequent research when I got home. That being the case, I dated this spoon to around 1698. Of course, I don’t know this for absolute-certainty (nobody can, it’s impossible!) but the clues to its age are there, if you know where, and how to look.
That officially (or unofficially) makes this humble, battered, worn-out old spoon – of unknown history and provenance – to be the oldest piece of silver in my collection, and the oldest antique I’ve ever personally held! And in this posting, we’ll explore how that conclusion was reached.
Building a Backstory for the Spoon
Researching this spoon was unlike anything I’d ever done before when it comes to a piece of antique silverware, and that’s all due to the condition of the spoon itself.
By laws passed centuries ago – all the way back in 1300 – all English silver MUST be sterling-standard (that’s 925 parts per 1,000, or 92.5% purity of silver by weight). And, by law, all English (and later, British) silver MUST be hallmarked before it may be sold to the public.
To hallmark silver, you – as the silversmith or goldsmith – had to take your piece of silver (like…I dunno…a spoon!) to the Goldsmith’s Hall in London, where it would be assayed (tested), marked (certified) and then returned to the silversmith.
Because of this, every single piece of English silver or gold has a set of hallmarks on it. Typically four: A fineness mark (to prove that it’s sterling silver), a date-mark (to prove when it was made), an assay mark (to prove which assay-hall tested the silver) and finally – a maker’s mark (to prove who made it). These marks changed over time, but it’s almost always these four marks.
Here you can see the hallmarks on another piece of silver from my collection. From left to right:
The maker’s mark, fineness mark, assay mark, and date-letter.
Because of this, almost every piece of English silver may be cross-referenced with the records of hallmarks, to determine who made it, when it was made, where, and what of.
Unfortunately, in 1681, the Goldsmiths’ Hall in London burned to the ground…which took thousands of hallmark-records along with it…whoops!
Fortunately, such a calamity has never happened since, but that does mean that you can’t accurately date a piece of English silver before the 1680s.
That aside, you’d think that finding out how old this spoon was, would be easy! Right?
Well, ordinarily – yes. A spoon like this would absolutely have to have been marked and assayed by the office before it was legal to sell.
And it was.
But, 320+ years of holding, touching, rubbing, polishing, washing and cleaning have completely obliterated the hallmarks which would originally have been stamped firmly into the back of the handle, using four steel punches and a hammer! Which means that those marks would’ve been punched DEEP into the silver. But the march of Old Father Time has completely erased all the marks, wearing down the silver so much that only the merest ghosts of what were once hallmarks, are visible today.
Well – that’s unfortunate. But the fact that you can tell that the marks were once there – even if they can’t be read – is good news – because it means that this truly is a piece of silverware, and not just a tin can someone cut into the shape of a spoon. Also – rubbed-out hallmarks are not uncommon. It happens when the marks are either poorly struck to begin with, or were simply rubbed out from overzealous cleaning over a long period of time.
The Power of Deduction
It was Sherlock Holmes who said that it was “a capital mistake to theorise in advance of the facts. Insensibly, one begins to twist facts to suit theories, rather than theories to suit facts!”
And the man was right. So, with no hallmarks to speak of (or at least, none which were useful to us), how to determine the age of the spoon?
Well, we had to go with what we could see, and deduce from that, the age.
The first major clue to the spoon’s age was it’s mere condition. The business-end was very, very thin – the result of centuries of scraping, cleaning, polishing and washing. The left edge of the spoon (which would contact the plate or bowl, if you were using it in your right hand) was very worn, and had significantly less silver on it than the right side of the spoon. This imbalance in the shape of the bowl tells us that it has seen a very hard, long and heavily-used life – something that only happens from centuries of wear and tear.
The next thing to look at was the construction of the spoon.
The underside of the bowl has a long tang which stretches from the end of the handle, under the bowl and almost to the end of it. Early spoons could suffer from structural issues, due to poor soldering, etc. To reinforce the joint between the bowl, and the handle, more silver was added in this area, resulting in that tang, better known in collecting circles as a “rat’s tail”.
The ‘rat’s tail’ on the back side of the spoon
The presence of the “rat-tail” proved that this spoon was very old – rattail spoons were a very old style, and would’ve largely disappeared by the late Georgian, and certainly by the Victorian era. Some spoons did still have them at that time, but by then, the rat’s tail was for decorative, rather than structural purposes. This tail, because of its size and thickness, was clearly meant to be a practical feature, rather than decorative, making the spoon an older, early 1700s or late 1600s piece.
Reading the Clues
The next indicator of the spoon’s age was the presence (on the back of the ‘terminal’, or end of the handle) of initials which had been engraved into the metal – “A.H.” – clearly those of the original owner’s. On their own, their significance doesn’t mean much – we’ll never know who “A.H.” was. But the fact that they were included on the spoon is another indicator of how old they are.
These days, if someone gave you a silver spoon, you would hardly think of engraving your initials on it, would you? I mean, why would you bother? Spoons are so common nowadays.
But that was not the case 300, 400 and 500 (and more) years ago.
In medieval times, it was common for people to eat food with a knife, and their hands. Spoons were rare, and difficult to make (remember the rat’s tail reinforcement to stop the spoon from snapping in half?). Cheap spoons were made of wood. You could also get a spoon made of copper (poisonous), pewter (poisonous), or silver (expensive!). Since spoons were so expensive and hard to make, you were only ever likely to own one – and because of this, it became the custom for a family to gift a newborn child their own personal spoon upon the occasion of their birth, or baptism, since it signified the most important operation required for life – eating!
This is the origin of the expression of being “born with a silver spoon in your mouth”.
As silver spoons were the most expensive, they were considered enormous status-symbols. A person who was gifted a silver spoon carried it for their entire lives, and to prevent theft and aid in identification, the spoons were often engraved with their initials, and sometimes, another identifier (like their date of birth, or something).
This practice of carrying your personal silver spoon everywhere you went (you never expected somebody else to just…give you a spoon!) lasted for centuries, and didn’t die out until the 1700s, when forks started becoming more commonplace after their on-again-off-again use in the 1600s.
The fact that this spoon has been engraved with someone’s initials would suggest that it came from a time when personal-use spoons were still a big part of dining culture, which would further point to the fact that it came from an earlier time.
The End of it All
Yet another indicator of the spoon’s age comes from yet another stylistic choice used in its construction:
The terminal.
The ‘terminal’ is the name given for that fancy thing at the end of the handle. It’s the decorative part that makes the spoon stand out. Some common terminals are King’s Pattern, Hannoverian, Fiddleback, etc.
This terminal is known, rather cutely, as a “dog’s nose”. I mean, you can kind of see the resemblance.
Dog-nose terminals did not last very long. From the last decade of the 17th century through to the first decade of the 18th century. A period of, at most, maybe 25 years, which really narrows down just how old this spoon might be.
Hmmm…Yes? No? Maybe?
Rule Britannia
The last final, possible, nugget of information that tells us how old the spoon is, comes from the ghosts of hallmarks left behind on the back of the handle.
As I said earlier – All English silver HAS to be hallmarked with FOUR hallmarks:
The date-letter, the assay mark, fineness mark, and maker’s mark.
Of these four marks, only two of them are half-visible. The only two which would help in dating would be the date-letter, and the fineness mark. The date-letter is nowhere to be seen (or at least, not in its entirety), but one other mark is (just) visible – and it may well be the fineness mark.
The traditional fineness mark on British silverware is the “Lion Passant” – or “Passing Lion” – specifically, a lion passing to the left. If you see this mark, it means that the metal is 925 sterling silver.
However, this was not always the case.
In the late 1600s and very early 1700s, for a very short period of time, law was changed, and silversmiths had to make their wares out of what was known as “Britannia Silver”. Britannia Silver is 95.8% purity – higher than Sterling. This might sound great, except that the more pure silver is, the weaker it gets – so weak that it can’t be used to make anything, since the metal would never hold its shape. It’s because of this that the silversmiths of London protested until the law was abolished, and silversmiths could go back to making sterling silver wares again, with Britannia as an “optional extra”, if they wished.
This law lasted from 1697 – 1720, a period of just 23 years.
Britannia silver, unlike Sterling, was indicated, not by a Lion Passant, but rather, with a Lion’s Head, or alternatively, with the figure of a seated lady – Lady Britannia!
The hallmark which is still (partially) visible is large – nearly 1cm from end to end – which would suggest it was the most important one – the fineness mark.
One way to be absolutely sure about the spoon’s date would be to have it independently assayed again. If it is 95% silver, then that would almost certainly mean that it’s from the late 1600s, or at worst, the first 20 years of the 18th century, which would still make it at least 300 years old!
Concluding Remarks
So, there you have it! An antique, 325-year-old (+/- a few years) Britannia-standard solid silver spoon!
There are loads of websites and books about identifying and studying antique British silver, but the dates and information I used in my research came from the very appropriately-named…
https://www.antiquesilverspoons.co.uk/
Update – 25th September, 2023
As I mentioned in my posting, further up, the only way to definitively prove the spoon’s age was to get it assayed. And the only way to assay the silver to find out its EXACT composition is to expose it to x-rays.
To this end, last week, I took the spoon to a gold-and-silver buyer in town who performs XRF-testing – that’s X-Ray Flourescent testing. Using an x-ray florescent machine, the tester very graciously agreed to test my spoon for me.
“95%” “You sure?” “Absolutely. 9-5. 95%”.
A spoon of this age, in this condition, made of 95% silver means that it was almost certainly made between 1697 (when Britannia standard was introduced) and 1720 (when it was made “optional”).
Given the styling of the spoon, its construction, the wear and the personalisation, I think we can finally, almost-definitively say that it is from the end of the 17th century.
This amazing score, and the latest addition to my pen-collection, was made just before the new year.
I hardly ever browse sites like Gumtree, usually because the chances of finding nice stuff on there is not very high – and when you do find stuff, it’s usually heavily overpriced – but this time – this time – I got lucky.
Extraordinarily lucky.
Sterling silver fountain pens are already expensive. Montblanc pens are even more expensive.
Sterling silver Montblanc pens are even more expensive than that!
Sterling silver Montblanc pens which also have vermeil (gold-on-silver) finishes?
I’ll let you do the maths on that one. Or, you could just go on eBay right now, type in “Vermeil Silver Montblanc Pen”, and then have a heart-attack over the prices…because that’s what I did the first time I ever looked into buying one!
As with the last pen which I wrote about in this blog, this model, which, like the last one, is a 146-sized pen – is part of the Montblanc “Solitaire” lineup, meaning that it’s a pen which is made of a precious metal – in this case – sterling silver.
Yep – I said sterling silver. Don’t let that fancy gold finish fool you! It’s vermeil – 18kt gold-filling over a sterling silver base. The cap on the pen is marked “925” for 92.5% purity of silver – the Sterling Standard.
This particular pen has the ripply, gripply “Barleycorn” finish, which was one of two finishes available to people buying a Montblanc Solitaire pen back in the 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s. The other finish was known as the “Pinstripe” variant. A third, significantly rarer style was the “Chevron” finish, which featured a chevron pattern across the pen.
Finding the Vermeil Barleycorn 146
I stumbled across this pen on Gumtree shortly after Christmas, and after thoroughly examining the pen, decided to buy it. The price was outrageously cheap (for a Montblanc in sterling silver, at any rate) and I knew that this would be a once-in-a-lifetime purchase. I was thrilled that it came complete with the box and cardboard sleeve, the instruction-booklet and everything else – usually, these are the first things to be hucked into the trash when you buy anything short of gold jewelry.
The pen was in fantastic condition. It had – as far as I could tell – never been touched, never been used, and had probably only come out of the box a handful of times in its life, if ever.
Of course, with something this cheap, the first thing you always think about is whether it might be fake.
Right?
Of course right! But just because something is at a price that’s too good to refuse, doesn’t mean that you should, right? Well of course not – because you never know – it might be a deal that IS too good to refuse, and which you would regret, if you did. Provided that you know what to look out for.
After close examination of the photographs, I determined that the pen was real, and that the price was too good to pass up. But as they say – ours is not to reason why – ours is but to view…and buy!
Because of the valuable nature of the package, it was shipped express, at no extra cost, and arrived safe and sound, three days after postage.
My Review of the Pen
If I had to sum up this pen in as few words as possible, I’d say that it was smooth, weighty, and wet.
The nib certainly writes as a medium, as opposed to a fine, and writes really glossy, smooth, and wet. The nib lays down a generous flow of ink without flooding the page, but also without feeling like it’s skimping on anything. At no point did I feel like the pen was going to run dry. That’s a characteristic of Montblanc pens that I’ve noticed over the years – when they write, they lay down really generous ink-flow. If you’re a fast writer, you’ll appreciate something like this.
Apart from the nib, however, this pen has a lot more metal on it than ordinary Montblancs. The cap and barrel are both sheathed in solid silver, one noticeable difference between this pen and a regular 146 is that this pen (like the sterling-striped variant in my previous posting) is much heavier! So for example – a Montblanc 149 “Diplomat”, which is a physically larger pen, weighs only 38g fully-inked…whereas this pen, while physically smaller – weighs 51g fully-inked. If you’re a fan of lightweight fountain pens – then chasing a silver or even a gold Montblanc of this size is definitely not for you.
Is the pen uncomfortable to write with? No. But that said, I wouldn’t be placing the cap on the end of the barrel (“posting”) while doing so, just because the weight may throw your balance off a bit. Unlike with a regular 146 pen, this one, with its silver cap, will add significant weight to the pen, which may pull the nib off the page and cause you to put more effort into your writing.
Concluding Remarks
The Montblanc 146 Sterling Vermeil in Barleycorn is a beautiful pen. Expensive, yes, but beautiful. If you’re not the kind for loud, garish writing instruments, it’s probably not for you – but if you want a somewhat overstated and elegant writing instrument with which to jot down your next shopping-list – this is the pen for you. Of course, they are very expensive, but if you’re patient enough and play your cards right, you can find amazing pens for amazing bargains. Just make sure that what you decide to buy is the genuine article, and that you haven’t been taken for a ride, and you should be fine.
From the early 1800s until the 1930s, China – the Central Kingdom – did a lot of trade with the west. Not all of it willingly, but a lot of it, in the various types of merchandise, materials and curiosities that Western audiences were very eager to acquire: Chinese silks, Chinese porcelain, Chinese tea, various oriental spices, and even Chinese silverware!
These various types of merchandise – furniture, porcelain, silks, silver and suchlike – were known as “exportware” – because they were deliberately made in China, for export (or internal sale in the Concessions) to Western markets. Today, such articles of exportware can be very valuable, and are often sought-after by collectors. A couple of weeks ago, I landed myself my own small piece of exportware – a lovely pair of Chinese export silver chopsticks.
This lovely pair of chopsticks, in solid silver, feature beautiful twisting grips that taper down to thin, cylindrical points, and have lovely carved rings set near the base of the grips, to show where one’s fingers should grip the chopsticks when in use. A set like this would’ve been purchased as a personal set, for individual use – either by the buyer, or as a gift for someone else. Fancy silver chopsticks like this would not have been cheap, but they would certainly have been treasured!
Sets like these are typical of those made in the late 1800s through to the early 1900s, and they’re sometimes identified as “travel” chopsticks. This is because, as you’ll have noticed – they are chained together at the top!
Chaining the sticks together is a deliberate act, and would’ve been done when the chopsticks were being made. It’s actually a far more common practice than you might think, and I’ve seen it done with several sets of antique personal-use chopsticks such as these, in the past. The whole point of the chaining is to prevent the sticks from being separated, and to stop them from being lost. This appears to have been common with personal silver sets like this – but less common with other sets – I’ve never seen this practice applied to antique chopstick-pairs which weren’t made of silver, suggesting that they weren’t valuable enough to warrant this extra effort of making, and then securing, a chain to the top of the sticks to prevent separation.
Using the Chopsticks
So, does the chain get in the way of anything? Does it make the chopsticks harder to use?
Honestly? No!
When held properly and used correctly, the back-end of a pair of chopsticks never moves more than a fraction of an inch, so provided that a proper grip is maintained – the chain will never pose an issue to effective chopstick use – and you’ll be able to eat quite comfortably!
If anything, the fact that the chopsticks are made of silver, is one of the main issues in using them. The silver is really thin, which can make the sticks fiddly to hold, and the tips are really smooth – which means there may not always be sufficient friction to grip the food – so basically eating noodles with these things is an exercise in futility…but anything else that isn’t slick or slippery, should be no more difficult than eating with any other chopsticks.
How old Are They?
The fact that they are export silver chopsticks would mean that a set like these are at least 100 years old. The wear on the silver and the discoloration just from regular use, is enough proof of their age already. On top of that, the heavy use has not only given the sticks a lot of wear and patina, but they’ve also meant that neither stick is 100% straight, either!
Rolling, pressing, and applying gentle pressure has eased out the worst of the warping, but they’ll never be 100% straight…maybe 95%, but that’s about it. This is the sort of wear that only comes from regular use over many, many decades of ownership, and I think it only makes them more quirky and desirable, as well as providing proof of their age.
This is pretty neat, huh? I bought this on eBay about a month ago, as an addition to my collection of writing instruments. I’ve always wanted a drop-action pencil, ever since a friend showed me one in her own collection. One day I was browsing eBay, and found a few which were for sale, and ended up buying this slick, smooth-sided cylindrical deal from the late Edwardian era.
The pencil is in sterling silver, and is made by the famed English manufacturer, Sampson Mordan & Co.
Sampson Mordan – the man, not the company – was an 18th and 19th century English silversmith and inventor. In his youth, he was apprenticed to the equally-famous English locksmith, Joseph Bramah (of ‘Bramah locks’ fame).
Mordan didn’t become a locksmith, but he was fascinated by mechanical doohickeys, and ended up inventing, in the early 1820s – the first ever mechanical pencil! The pencil operated on a screw-type mechanism where by rotating the pencil advanced or propelled the shaft of graphite out of the tip of the silver housing, allowing a person to write with a pencil without getting graphite all over their fingers, and without having to constantly sharpen the point. Since the action of the pencil’s mechanism propelled the graphite out of it, they became known as ‘propelling pencils’.
Mordan made a HUGE name for himself as the inventor of, and chief producer of, graphite propelling pencils! Largely made in sterling silver and gold (he was a silversmith, after all), the Sampson Mordan silversmithing firm started cranking out all kinds of whimsical designs for pencils. In the 1800s, there was no such thing as a portable fountain pen, and the ballpoint was a century away – so having a compact, easy-to-operate writing instrument in your pocket that you could whip out at any moment was very useful. Mordan (and other companies) started manufacturing all kinds of novelty shapes and styles.
You could buy pencils which were shaped like rifles, golf-clubs, cricket-bats, wine-bottles, and polo-mallets! In sterling silver, or in a wide variety of gold.
One of the company’s greatest inventions came out in the late 1800s – the drop-action pencil holder!
Pencil-holders had existed before Mordan, but they were all slide-action. You grasped the barrel of the holder, and then with your other hand, you pulled the slide down the barrel, and the pencil inside slid out, held in place by the clutch-ring inside the mechanism. These were good, sorta, but the need to always have two hands free to operate them was always a bit of a faff!
The drop-action pencil-holder, by comparison, was a big improvement!
The mechanism is very simple, and works entirely on gravity (so long as you have the right pencil size!). After seating the pencil firmly in the circular clutch-ring inside the barrel, you press the release-button on the back of the holder. The whole thing works on a catch-and-release system. Pressing the button both drops the button down, and twists it slightly. This releases the clutch-ring that holds the pencil, and allows it to drop down through the barrel and out the end of the holder, exposing the pencil, and locking the ring in place.
The holder with the pencil extended
When you’re done writing, you press the release-button again, and, with another in-and-twist motion, the clutch-ring is released from the barrel opening and drops back into the base of the holder.
Hence ‘drop-action’. That said, they’re also called gravity-action pencils, because they work entirely on gravity. Since the pencil could be operated entirely by one hand, it became very popular. Such holders were compact, portable, easy to use (which made them great when you were busy and needed to take notes) and economical, because they allowed you to use up the last few centimetres of a pencil before having to throw it out when it at last, wore down to a stub!
Pencil-holders like these started losing favour among writers after the First World War. When fountain pens started coming onto the market, the need to always carry a pencil around with you diminished greatly, and eventually, pencil-holders and propelling pencils started losing ground to the modern mechanical click-action clutch-pencil used today.
The hallmarks on the silver barrel. Originally it was just “S.M.” for Sampson Mordan, but after he died in the 1840s, it was changed to “SM&Co.” for Sampson Mordan & Company. SM&Co. ended in 1941, when the factory in London was bombed by the Nazis during the Blitz
Regardless, antique silver and gold drop-action and slide-action pencil-holders are still popular, and still collected today, for their artistry, their uniqueness, but also for their practicality – unlike the antique propelling pencils which relied on specifically-sized graphite leads or rods to operate – these pencil-holders simply require another pencil!
Such holders do have a few drawbacks – ONE – their small size means that only small pencils fit into them, so you can’t have anything longer than 2-3 inches – TWO – the pencils have to fit into the clutch-ring that holds the pencil-stub in place inside the barrel. This means you have to whittle down the pencil to fit in – THREE – modern hexagonal pencils are a bit fiddly. They still work, but it’s better to use pencils which are cylindrical, instead, since they slide in and out of the holder more reliably. You can use a hexagonal pencil if you want to, however you’d have to round-off the edges on the shaft first, to prevent them from rubbing on the sides of the barrel and jamming the mechanism.
The release-button and the slide-and-lock mechanism may also need some cleaning with a bit of oil for lubrication, but once everything does work, it works very smoothly, with a solid ‘click’ at each end of the slide, to indicate that the pencil has been locked into position.
The final drawback to these pencil-holders is that for them to function – they must be in really good condition. Any big dents or dings on the sides of the barrel will render the holder completely useless, since they would jam the sliding mechanism inside, meaning that the pencil would be stuck in the open or closed position. If you’re looking to buy such a pencil for your own use – always check for dents – even a small one can incapacitate a pencil with relative ease.
Picked this up at the flea-market before our current lockdown happened. At least it gave me something to play around with, something to write about, and something to restore, during this winter of our discontent. Great discontent!
This is an antique, silver bombilla.
What is a Bombilla?
A bombilla (“Bom-bee-yah”) is a straw, designed for drinking yerba mate, a type of tea popular in South America. To prepare mate, a quantity of tea-leaves are crushed and then poured into the teacup – or mate gourd – and then hot (but not boiling) water is poured on top. The bombilla is inserted, and once the tea has brewed, it may be drunk out of the gourd using the bombilla.
To prevent rusting, bombillas were always made of non-ferrous metals – brass, copper, pewter…or if you could afford it – solid silver, like this one. These days, most bombillas are made of stainless steel.
Due to the high quantity of tea-leaves and leaf-powder present in yerba mate, it’s usually impractical to drink the tea as one might with other types of tea – since you’d end up swallowing half the tea-leaves along with the drink! It’s for this reason that the bombilla was invented. The bombilla allows you to suck up the tea, while bypassing the tea leaves. And in case you can’t, then there’s always the filter or strainer, at the bottom of the bombilla, to catch any tea-leaves or grit that might be sucked up by the straw. This stops the leaves from clogging the straw, or from being swallowed…or choked on…by the drinker, while enjoying their tea.
Antique bombillas made of silver are often intricately formed and decorated. The straws are chased, engraved, they might twist and turn in a spiral fashion (think of those plastic crazy-straws that kids use), or they might even have applied, silver decorations to them, similar to mine.
How is a Bombilla Used?
You suck on it.
OK, actually it’s a bit more complex than that. Not by much, but a bit.
Bombillas come with a filter at the bottom. That’s the little perforated strainer that you see at the end. It’s purpose, as mentioned earlier, is to prevent you from sucking up and either swallowing, or choking on – the tea-leaves or tea-dust inside your mate. The mate tea-leaves are pressed to one side of your cup or gourd, and then the hot water is poured in. This means that only a small amount of tea-leaves are steeped at any one time, so that you can get the strongest flavour! This is also why you have the bombilla, anyway – to drink the tea at the bottom of the gourd, since you sure as hell can’t hold it up and drink it – unless you want the tea-leaves going all over you!!
One useful feature about bombillas is that you can pull them apart. Usually, the filter-bulbs unscrew, or unplug from the straw. This allows you to clean out the straw, clean out the filter, remove any clogging from tea-leaf residue, and keep the whole thing in working order. In my case, the filter just unscrews, like so:
Once your bombilla’s been cleaned – you simply screw the two parts back together. Easy!
Because bombillas are metal, the tea they’re used to drink is rarely served (or at least, drunk) at boiling-hot temperature, to prevent burning your mouth or lips on the straw. The length of the bombilla (this one is 8 inches long!) also aids in helping the tea to cool down during the journey from the teacup to your mouth.
Cleaning your Silver Bombilla
As it’s going to be something that you’ll put in your mouth, it probably goes without saying that if you do buy an antique silver bombilla, you should definitely clean it before using it. This can easily be done with soap, hot water, and a thin, stiff-bristled bottle-brush or tube-brush, to scour out and clean the inside of the straw, and the filter.
If you need to polish the silver, you can do that with either a liquid or paste silver polish (I use Hagerty’s polishing paste), a silver-polish cloth, or, if you’re worried about the residue from the polish getting into the straw – you can use the baking-soda method!
This has become a very popular method for cleaning silver over the last few years, and you can find loads of videos about it on YouTube.
Put simply – you line a wide, flat-bottomed container with aluminium foil (shiny side up). You put the silver item into the foil-lined container (in this case, the bombilla), and then you fill the container with BOILING HOT WATER. It has to be boiling hot, or else nothing happens.
Next, you pour in copious amounts of baking soda, making sure to cover as much of the silver item as possible. The baking soda and the hot water react, and you get a fizzy, sizzling sound, and lots and lots of bubbles. The baking soda reaction eats away at the tarnish on the silver, scouring the metal with the fizzing water, and loosens and removes blemishes from the surface of the metal. Then – fish the silver out, and dry it off. The baking soda will either have removed the tarnish entirely, or if not, then will have loosened it enough to remove it by regular polishing.
This method is useful if the silver item you’re cleaning is intricate, fragile, extremely dirty, and/or hard to clean, or if you’re cleaning loads of things at once.
Can you Still Find Silver Bombillas?
Absolutely!! There’s loads of them – mostly antiques – on eBay, but they can be quite pricey. Anywhere from $100 – $500, depending on the age, condition and size. Some are quite small, others, like mine, can be quite lengthy. If the bombilla is silver, it’s usually stamped on the filter at the bottom of the straw with 800, or 900 silver. When buying, make sure that the filter is undamaged, without dents, and can be easily removed and replaced on the straw (this is vital, because otherwise, you can’t clean it if it gets clogged or needs rinsing out!).
But – you might be asking – what about the yerba mate gourds? The cups used to drink the tea out of? Are they made in silver, too?
Oh, you bet! They’re not as common as silver bombillas, but silver gourds can be found, although, like the bombillas, they can be fairly expensive. Sometimes, you can find them together, sold as bombilla-and-gourd sets.
I love silverware. There, I said it. I love the colour, the history behind pieces of wrought silver, and the limitlessness of the vast array of items which can be made out of silver. One thing I’ve always wanted is a pair of silver chopsticks!
After hunting and digging around on eBay for literally months, and using every combination of words that I could possibly conjure, I finally settled on a pair of silver chopsticks which were affordable, in great condition, which were marked, and which would be easy to use, and maintain.
The chopsticks I bought are Japanese in style, and they showed up in a nice, wooden presentation box, where they can be stored when they’re not on active duty as waistline-enhancement devices. All in all, a pretty nifty package.
The History of Silver Chopsticks
Silver chopsticks have existed for centuries, throughout Asia – mainly in the three major chopstick-using countries – China, Korea, and Japan. Just like silver cutlery in Western countries, the purpose of silver chopsticks was much the same – they were a status-symbol, a store of wealth, and a source of familial pride.
The tale is often told that silver chopsticks were favoured by the great emperors of China and Japan in ancient times, because eating with silver chopsticks would tell the emperor if his food had been poisoned. Supposedly, the poison would turn the silver black! – and this would be a sure sign that the food was tainted, and deadly!
Right?
No.
Actually, loads of things turn silver black – eggs, meat, spicy foods…basically anything which might have high levels of sulfur in it. It doesn’t mean that the food is poisonous – it just means that the silver has been tarnished by a chemical reaction – not that anybody in Ancient China would’ve understood what that was. It’s the sulfur dioxide, and the acids, in various foods (for example, lemon juice, salt, etc) which causes silver to turn black and discolour. Poison has nothing to do with it.
I want my own Set of Silver Chopsticks! Where do I get them?
Antique silver chopsticks can be found, if you’re patient enough, but you can also buy modern sliver chopsticks! Yes, silver chopsticks are still made today (try eBay, if you want to find a set), but beware of fakes!
As a general rule – never buy silverware (chopsticks, or otherwise) which is not hallmarked! Especially from online sources, like eBay. One of the main reasons for collecting silverware, now, as it was in centuries past – was to act as a store of wealth. That wealth doesn’t exist if the silver isn’t real! And in most cases, your word that the silver is real, isn’t going to convince most people – so why should you take the word of somebody else, that the silver they’re trying to sell you, is real, if they can’t independently prove it, by showing the hallmarks? Always remember this when buying silverware, especially from some Asian countries, where hallmarking is less stringent than it is in say, North America, and in Europe.
After all – that is the whole point of hallmarks – proving that silver is real. Believe it or not, but hallmarks on gold and silver are the oldest surviving form of customer-protection IN THE WORLD – and date back literally 1,000+ years, all the way to the Byzantine Empire of the 5th century!
“SILVER 925”, or 92.5% silver by purity. AKA – Sterling Silver.
I bought these chopsticks because they were clearly marked “SILVER 925” on the shafts. Without that – I wouldn’t have bothered. There are loads of sellers out there with “silver” chopsticks assuring you that they are silver, but until you get them tested, you only have their word for it. And sorry, but a person’s word isn’t enough to convince me to blow money on something silver, if it isn’t marked – and it shouldn’t be enough for you, either. And a lot of these chopsticks online and elsewhere, aren’t marked. Whatever you decide to buy – make sure they’re marked. If they don’t show you a photograph of the marks, or if you can’t find them – then move on and keep searching.
Japanese Personal Chopsticks!
One thing I loved about the chopsticks I bought is that they came from Japan. This interested me for a few reasons…
One, because Japan loves making things out of silver (seriously, have you seen Japanese silver sake sets?), but also, two, because Japan has a strong culture of personal dining utensils.
Unlike China, it’s really common in Japan for people to have their own personal, individual chopstick-sets, instead of just digging out a pair of mismatched whatevers, from the darkest depths the cutlery drawer in the kitchen, whenever it’s time to eat. You can even go to that Japanese super-store, DAISO, and you’ll see individual chopsticks-sets for sale – usually aimed at children – so that they can get used to the idea that “this is MY set, and only I am going to use them!” (by the way – those child’s sets are also really useful if you ever decide that you need a small set for traveling, or keeping them at the office for lunch, or whatever!) – they even come in their own little pouches and cases, enforcing the idea that these are your chopsticks, and none shall have use of them, apart from you!
The culture of personal chopsticks sets is so strong in Japan that there’s even stores there (bricks-and-mortar, or online) which sell a stunningly wide array of chopsticks in all kinds of styles and designs, from retractables, glass, porcelain, bamboo, bone, steel, exotic woods, screw-apart compact ones – and hell yeah – even ones in solid silver!
So – if you are looking for a nice pair of silver chopsticks – probably best to start in Japan, and widen your search from there.
If ever two words were more opposite to each other, I don’t think you could find a pair more perfect than ‘toothpick’…and…’luxury’.
But here we are.
I have dared to put these two into the same sentence, and it has been done.
Toothpicks have been used for thousands of years for cleaning teeth, picking out stuck food, gunk, grime, or for scraping away at the enamel surfacing to remove hardened plaque or other detritus. In an age before particularly sophisticated (or comfortable) dental care was available, keeping one’s teeth clean with a toothpick was one of the most important things ever! Abscesses, receding, or inflamed guns, and the sheer discomfort of stuck food or tooth decay, were big motivators for keeping one’s mouth (and teeth) as clean as possible at all times.
Precious Metal Toothpicks
Toothpicks made out of metal have been in use for centuries, and ranged from simple copper, bronze or brass ones, to expensive luxury models, such as those made from silver, or from (usually low karat) solid gold. In an age when plentiful food and good nutrition was much rarer than it is nowadays, using a silver or gold toothpick to clean your mouth after a meal was a sign of wealth and extravagance – the fact that you needed to use such a thing indicated wealth, and the fact that it was made of silver or gold only enforced this fact to anybody watching.
Precious metal toothpicks in gold or silver were common in many cultures around the world, and examples have been found which were made in the United Kingdom, Australia, and several countries in Asia, where using toothpicks is much more common overall, than it tends to be in European countries.
In both Europe, and Asia, silver and gold toothpicks were a common accessory. Usually, such toothpicks were housed in cylindrical metal storage tubes, and could be slid in or out upon the demand for use. They were usually affixed to the user’s clothing, or hung around the neck, using a chain or necklace, or else clipped to another piece of jewelry – such as on the end of a pocketwatch chain.
Such retractable toothpicks became increasingly popular in the 1700s and 1800s, when grooming and personal presentation were taken very seriously, and when professional dental care left much to be desired. Numerous silversmiths and goldsmiths all over the world made toothpicks for sale the public – usually out of high-grade silver (800, 900 or 925 sterling), or else, out of lower-grade gold (usually 9kt), owing to the soft nature of gold, which had to be heavily alloyed with copper so that it would be strong enough to be made into something as thin and small as a toothpick, without snapping or breaking while being used.
I picked up this particular toothpick at my local flea-market. There wasn’t much information, except a card that said: “STERLING SILVER TOOTHPICK”, and a price ($5.00). I have no idea how old it is, but going by the “STG SIL” mark on the end of the shaft, I’d say that it was Australian-made (STG SIL is a common, generic Australian silver mark, standing for “STERLING SILVER”).
The pick is square cross-sectioned, with a sharp, pyramidal point, a twisted shaft, and a flat, spatula’d end with the fineness punched into it. It’s 2-3/4 inches long, and is by far the smallest antique I have ever purchased!
For the person who has everything – you can still buy sterling silver toothpicks today. They might be the perfect “green” solution for you, if you’re looking for a portable and discrete way to clean your teeth while out and about, and don’t want to use wooden toothpicks, plastic ones, or miles and miles of dental-floss. A number of online retailers sell them and if nothing else, it’ll definitely be a conversation-piece at your next dinner engagement!…but perhaps just display it, rather than demonstrate it!
