French marriage cups, one is dated and the other I think they are beautiful and rather elegant but know very little about them. Can you help? They measure approx. The bowls have leopard's heads for handles that were seemingly cast, then hand worked; the stylized bodies terminate in "pads" for attachment to the sides of the bowls.
The bases are 6 sided but each side is divided into two parts - 12 sided? And the bases have a guilloche-like design running around them. These items have miniscule hallmarks.
One is diamondshaped and the other circular. The diamond shaped mark is approx 1mm long x. An interesting note - all of the hallmarks are on the same side as the inscriptions. Each leopard head, bowl and base are marked with one or both of these marks. The silver has developed a grayish "bloom" over a considerable part of the surface and regular silver polish cannot remove it.
Any information would be gratefully appreciated. Russell IP: Logged. Posts: Registered: May 99 posted AM I have not been able to see the pictures, but I know a very little about these coupes de marriage coup means "hit" or "blow" which is rather a different concept!
The form dates to the 17th century, as far as I know, but they were made consistently throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. My own grandparents drank their 50th-anniversary toasts out of one that had come into the family somehow in the 20th century. Someone who knows French silver will be possibly able to tell you more from the description of the poincons; the grayish bloom you find over the surface that doesn't polish off sounds like possibly fire scale; a common problem on old American silver as well.
