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Interesting family piece (although I don't know how it arrived in the family!).
Pendant.
Maker may be Bernard Hertz (open to suggestions though).
The clasp is marked BH, 925S, which is fairly normal. But it is the other mark that interests me. Why does the 585 mark signify on what appears to be a silver piece?
Hi,
This is still a mystery, I mean to attach 14 K gold pendant to silver clasp. The pendant itself could be 14 K gold because it`s properly marked 585 BH for Bernard Hertz (I would have it checked, though). I have made many clasps myself but never had in stock matching clasp (the same maker). Besides, the clasp has practically no weight, why would one be so thrifty to attach it to gold? It does not make any sense. It acquires patina when worn and needs cleaning unlike gold pendant. Bearing the same marks, a mistake made in the workshop cannot be excluded. Let`s have in mind hundreds of pieces are being made and most of the time it looks like factory production line. (Similar to rare exceptions of having two buttons mistakenly pierced in Steiff ears).
Cheers
This reminds me of the Swiss Pocket Watches which are marked for 14k gold in many places except for the top of the watch where it attaches to the watch chain ::: This part is very low gold content, and has an obscure very tiny manufacture's mark that designates it as such ::: My best guess is that where there is a lot of physical movement, it would be beneficial to have a very durable metal with low gold content and higher content of stronger metals :::
But still, would 925 silver be stronger than 14k white gold? It still doesn't make sense, but this is the best I can offer. Sometimes the clasp or stem of an object is of a different metal composition, and I assume it is to protect against excessive physical movement. But really, in this case, my best guess is that the factory didn't have 14k clasps on hand so they used a 925 silver clasp? It would match the 14k white gold color anyway, so the maker just put it on there?
Unless it is an after-market replacement clasp, which it could be, maybe the original clasp broke off and the maker chose a 925 silver clasp as a replacement clasp.
Everything is possible, and it is pointless to speculate.
The first thing you normally do, is to test the material.
And that's why my reaction was so playful.
Thanks all for your comments - and apologies for the close up of my gloves!
I'll clean the clasp shortly - it's a piece owned by my parents, they always thought it was just sterling silver! Mum vaguely recalls picking it up at an antique store many moons ago.
Always good to have some history with a family heirloom.
