Beautiful & rare antique French Napoleon III era ODIOT hallmarked .800 (nearly sterling) silver & genuine carved ivory 6pc dessert knife set with armorial style royal crown topped heraldry and all in fabulous condition! All blades bear the French Minerve or Minerva hallmark, the shape and tiny number "2" within those marks means they're in .800 or better silver (at least 80% pure so just under the .925 standard for "sterling" silver). All bear the "Odiot" mark, maker to royalty and long lauded for only the finest of fine. A beautiful set, don't miss them!
Very good condition. No splits in the genuine carved ivory handles and no damage to any of the silver blades that I can see. See pictures for 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.
