1939 Johannes Siggaard - Silver Letter Opener - unidentified mark

[Tommi]

Hello fellow treasure hunters and gathers,

My sister came back from Europe last week with a present for me, an antique letter opener.
From my own research I have found that it is a piece by Danish assay-master Johannes Siggaard (1932 - 1960) made in 1939, it has the 3 x towers which is a Danish Silver stamp which is suppose to indicate a silver purity of minimum 826/1000.

SJ - Johannes Siggaard
III - Danish Silver Mark

The remaining stamp has me stumped though, any ideas?

Something of interest - http://www.925-1000.com/dm_Assay.html - according to this site 1939 was time of a new seal design, my letter opener has the 1913 seal, I was thinking that maybe it's not 1939 but 1930, but then that doesn't fit into the Assay-master's time frame - my conclusion, it was one of the last pieces of silver in that year to be stamp with the old seal.

 

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[Ramitt]

very nice

 

[TheDane]

Hi Tommi

Nice piece of silver.

I don´t know if you know this, but the scene on the top is depicting the fairy tale of Hans Christian Andersen: "The Flying Trunk"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flying_Trunk

The scene is also made on spoons, knives and forks too:

http://www.bestik.dk/bestik/537?bid=540

 

[Tommi]

Thanks Ramitt

Thank you TheDane, that was fasinating, I had no idea about "The Flying Trunk", interesting stuff.
The link you posted with the other knifes, forks and spoons, are they by Johannes Siggaard too?

 

[TheDane]

Thanks Ramitt

Thank you TheDane, that was fasinating, I had no idea about "The Flying Trunk", interesting stuff.
The link you posted with the other knifes, forks and spoons, are they by Johannes Siggaard too?

Hi Tommi

I don´t know about those that I posted. Was just to show you the scene.

As far as I know Johannes Siggaard was NOT the silversmith nor the designer.
He was the "silver guardein".

Here some more of an entire series (for children) in "Three Tower Silver" with scenes from the fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen.
Here one with the same stamping, item no. 3:
http://porcelaensbutikken.dk/group.asp?group=2482

An other:
http://www.antik-i.com/?mod=annonce&id=261691

 

[Tommi]

So who made the letter opener? I think the mystery lies in that unknown seal...

That scene was the same, interesting to see how it hasn't changed, I remember my first reaction to when I saw the scene and thought to myself was that the architecture of the buildings does not look European.

 

[TheDane]

Hi again

I have been doing a lot of searching on the internet in English, German and Danish ...
... but I have not been able to find any information about the letter opener.

One thing is sure, it is fine, genuine danish silver, the sign with the three towers show that.

 

[Tommi]

Thank you for all your time TheDane
I love it, its a beautiful bit of history.