116. Crab hallmark in a shaped frame
Illustration of crab hallmark
Crab hallmark in a shaped border with assay office mark between the legs, limited warranty mark for small items in 800/000 silver. Departments from 1838 until 1962, then Paris and departments until it was replaced by the hallmark with the head of Minerva in a shaped frame in 1984.
The information on the crab hallmark and the other hallmark illustrations on this site come from the book Traditional French Jewellery, written by Mike Fieggen, expert in antique jewellery and hallmarks from Osprey Paris. This 300-page book, the definitive reference on French regional jewels and their hallmarks, is available in French and English in our store, on Amazon and at certain bookshops. A complete list of the assay office marks, small secret marks in the hallmarks that allow you to identify in which city an object was hallmarked, as well as a list of the closing dates of the assay offices, are included in this book. You can thus, for the first time, locate the origin of the jewels and also date them with more precision.
