155. Large hallmark of chimera facing right
Large hallmark of chimera facing right surrounded by a shaped border with assay office symbol between the wing and the rump. For silver import clocks and watches. From 1838 to 1893 for the four special hallmark offices: Lyon, Besançon, Montbéliard and Lons-le-Saunier. In 1893, this hallmark was replaced by the swan hallmark.
The information on the large chimera 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 bookstores. 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.
