letter scale

maker: Ateliers voor Edelsmeed en Penningkunst Koninklijke Begeer b.v.
Zoetermeer, the Netherlands, 1989 bruine lijn

scale

This letter scale looks old, but this proves to be not the case. More about this later. The model itself is surely old. The original is a letter scale design made by Hall, on which a patent was granted already in 1863. The scale presented here has four little marks, these marks prove this scale is made of solid silver. From left to right the marks are: maker's mark, mark of standard of fineness, assay office mark and a date letter mark. The maker's marks of the Dutch gold and silversmiths are collected in a book. Thanks to Mr. van Pelt of the assay office 'Waarborg-Holland' the name behind the maker's mark is now known to me. See the inscription below the figure. The legally based mark with the lion stands for a silver standard of fineness of 835 thousandths per gram, this is 2nd standard silver. These hall-marks are applied by the

back of the scale

the four marks

maker's mark of
Ateliers voor
Edelsmeed en Penningkunst
Koninklijke Begeer b.v.
Zoetermeer
1926-1991

2nd standard silver
= 835 thousandths
mark applied
on large objects

the
assay office
mark

the
date letter
of 1989

official Dutch precious metals hall-marking organization: the assay office. In the mark of the assay office there is a character by which the town of the assay office is indicated. Here, I can't read this character. The stamped in character E is the date letter mark used in 1989. This design of letter scale, is also called a "goose neck". The resemblance with the neck of a goose is obvious. The letter clip doesn't function (anymore) because the clamping parts are jointed by soldering. The pendulum of the indicator has a fine pattern. The chart is 100 grams maximum. Stripes are given at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 100 grams. Below some more pictures of this young solid silver letter scale dated 1989.

the unloaded position	weighing	a loaded position
the letter clip	letter clip and holding ring	holding ring
pendulum of indicator	ornamented indicator	100 grams maximum
under the magnifier	the decoration	zoomed in at the pattern

« Sol collection: part 4«

version: April 25, 2004