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This 11"/ 28cm candlestick has got me baffled. It has a fluted column and mounted decorations of fruit, flowers and shells. The two small marks on it appear to be a lady with a skinny neck facing right, next to a group of symbols and a rubbed mark of the letters “ I S ?” with another letter possibly preceding those.

I have searched everywhere I can without success. Any opinions or definitive answer will be very welcome.

Hi Paul,

It's Italian, from Napoli.

Member blakstone wrote:

The head is that of Parthenope, the Greek siren who was the namesake of the ancient Greek colony today known as Naples, Italy. The mark, in this form, was used in Naples from 1824 until 1878 (when Naples joined the unified Kingdom of Italy). The "N" stood not for "Napoli" (as is often assumed) but "nostrali" ["ours"], indicating local production (as opposed to imported items marked with an "E" for "estero" ["foreign"], or liturgical items marked with a cross). The number indicated the both the metal and its purity: "8" indicated .833 silver.

The other mark will be that of the maker.

Trev.

Thanks Trev. I have hundreds of books relating to silver and hallmark, but none of them helped. A huge gap in my library is a book about Italian marks. My thanks to you and Blakstone for solving the mystery. My quest now is to get a book about Italian marks!

Best wishes.

Paul.

Blakstone left the book reference in this thread: https://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopi ... pe#p131775

I can add that the silversmith is Gabriele Sisino

Thanks everyone. Mystery solved!