Antique Plate
Brass / copper plate. Described by program Great Mysteries of the world as The Great Plate.
Passed down by great grandfather
Inherited
Maybe
Thank you for submitting your item for appraisal. At first glance the plate would remind me of art nouveau brass plates made by Georg Mendelssohn, Hellerau or someone else working around 1910. The odd combination of art nouveau styles (bird punch mark) and nonsensical hallmarks leads to be believe that this piece was manufactured in Hanau, Germany. Usually an apprentice has to work on lesser valuable material, e.g. copper or alloys like brass until he or she is allowed to work on precious metals. The so called Hanau pseudo marks were used to mislead and deceive the buyer. Gebrüder Dingeldein / Karl Kurz ( founded in 1868) used a dolphin hallmark, and were quite inventive in re-inventing antique objects to satisfy the strong demand for antique objects. Neresheimer was one of the better known manufacturers in Hanau, but there were much more.
The estimate is based on similar objects sold at auction plus the TV-fame the plate once had. The sentimental value for you will be much higher than the market value, but there is no measurement for the sentimental value.
Thank you, the weird thing is the hallmarks you usually find on silver, but here it is apparently brass. For how long has the item in the possession of your family, approx. 1900? Brought from Germany?
The TV series you are referring to was the one with Leonard Nimoy "in search of the mysteries.."?
Which season and epsiode? They are all on U-Tube
I’m quite sure the plate has been passed down for quite a few generations. Was talk of my great grandfather passing it to my grandfather after purchasing it overseas around the late 1800’s early 1900’s. The TV series was not the one hosted by Leonard Nimoy but an Australian version hosted by an unknown presenter.
I’ve attempted to view the program by contacting the television networks here in Australia and have been told the program exists but due to the owners copyright they will not release it. As stated the plate was referred to as The Great Plate and is very very old.
It is the same series, only the titel changed a little and I think the last season they changed the presenter.
Hi, I’ve added a couple of photographs of the plate size as well as the bearded Neptune/ man motif as well as the other KAA markings. From the photograph of the rear the bearded man motif can be seen on the right hand edge of the plate and is the size of a coin and the only motif of its kind on the plate