Elegant antique French Napoleon III era COMPLETE matching 5pc .800 (nearly sterling silver) & genuine carved ivory meat & salad serving utensil or implement set with grotesque or mascaron figures and all beautifully kept in a fitted storage and/or presentation box! A wonderful set, complete and all pieces with those lovely solid carved ivory handles. The set includes meat carving knife & fork, salad serving fork & spoon and the original fitted storage and/or presentation case or box! The silver stems of the salad fork & spoon bear the tiny French boar's head hallmark, which designates it as being .800 silver content (80% pure so just under the .925 standard for "sterling" silver). I see no silversmith marks, not uncommon with these smaller silver parts, but the interior lid of the box is marked "A. Pagel, Vienne" for what surely would have been the Austrian retailer. Original steel tines & blade on the meat serving pieces. All original and all in wonderful shape, gorgeous!
Very good condition. I see no notable damage whatsoever other than an age or drying split in a few of the ivory handles. Some tarnish and/or age corrosion to the steel (pre-stainless steel) on the meat knife and fork. The box appears original, all pieces fit and the box itself is in great shape. See pictures for all weights and measurements.
The vast majority of worked and antique object tortoise shell material comes from the shells of two species of sea turtles: the hawksbill (Eretmo-chelys imbricata) and, more rarely, the green turtle (see box A). The shells of these turtles exhibit attractive patterns that normally consist of light to dark brown patches, though a homogeneous “cream”-colored variety called blond tortoise shell also exists.
IMPORTANT NOTE regarding antique tortoise shell or ivory: We are great supporters of protection for endangered species in our modern world. We never buy or sell anything 100 years or newer; we donate to anti-poaching organizations; we don't hunt; we conserve in ways that impact global warming (we're totally solar at home), knowing those measures also protect the animals in the wild today. We also recognize the vast cultural history we preserve with our care and reverence for these antique objects, and agree with CITES that objects over 100 years of age have nothing whatsoever to do with species depletion in our current world.
Our offering exceeds the age limitation of "more than 100 years of age", and is well within the exemption for CITES regulation. If imported, met the CITES regulation. This item will be handled and shipped from our Utah business, and is not available for shipment internationally, nor within the USA to California, NY, Nevada, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington if it contains ivory, sorry. Please see our small print for more details.
