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Hello,

I am brand new to this forum. I am from Belgium and in my spare time I go out metaldetecting on the fields. During one of these excursions I found this very nicelooking silver button with on the backside a silvermark of what appears to be a unicorn.

Can someone tell me where this was produced and especially in what century? I am thinking about 16-17th century...Am I close? :-)




Best regards

Bohemond

while not exact mark # 2383 in "the book of old silver" is close and is called a Hamburg master's mark 17th cent
In any case, it is a beautiful ornate design.
Is this the oldest thing you have found with a detector?

Don't think it is a unicorn, more like a swan or stork stretching its wing. Unfortunately, the only "wing up" right facing birds I can find are French marks that do not apply to this piece. Perhaps someone else knows it?

Regards, Tom

I have found a left turned bird that is very similar to this right turned bird. That mark is from Kasan
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasan" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Now the bird faces the wrong direction - I dont know if it is a possibility? but the mark that i found nr 891 in the book "Silver Stämplar Från hela värden" Swedish edition of "Silberstempel aus aller Welt" looks very close.

forgot that mark is 1700 and first half of 1800.
Russian soldiers in Belgium - that is very possible.

I think the arms depict the heraldic device known as "the pelican in her piety", i.e. piercing her breast to feed her young on her own blood. In addition to the offical seal my native state of Louisiana in the U.S. (which the button is of course not from), the only civic arms with this device I can think of is Irig, Serbia, but doubtless there are others.

I have tried to improve a bit.

I found out that the the "pelican in her piety" is used in the coat-of-arms of the German town Luckenwalde in Brandenburg.
http://www.luckenwalde-urban.de/index.h ... hronik.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I hope this helps.