French Gold Hallmarks: How to and Book Review

Published by L. Roth on Oct 16th 2024

French Gold Hallmarks: How to and Book Review

Understanding the French gold hallmarks on that antique gold chain you just purchased can be frustrating. The French Hallmarking system is difficult to understand let alone use -- even for the pros.

Trust me, I have received pieces from European auction houses where I was told that they had French Hallmarks and when I carefully examined the piece, I found that they had been mistaken. Luckily for me, all have had happy endings.

Unlike the English system, which is considered to be more systematic and user-friendly, the French system is not. But don't give up, a new book has come along that I promise can help!

I was so excited to discover and read “French Precious Metal Hallmarks from 1789 to Date” Author: Michael Fieggen because I finally found a reliable guide, in English, that has everything I need to know about French hallmarks on gold (and silver and platinum) in one place.

This book can help you too, whether you are an experienced dealer, collector, or just bought a piece you fell in love with on Insta.

The English version was just released last month.

SO WHAT’S IN “FRENCH PRECIOUS METAL HALLMARKS”?

If you thought that 18k French gold hallmarks were only about the “Eagle” you would be wrong, o.k. just a little bit. There are six different eagle’s heads that were used in hallmarks in France. Do you know how to differentiate between them and their periods of use?

Did you also know that throughout time the Horse Head, the Rhinoceros Head, and the Weevil just to name a few, were also used as hallmarks for 18k gold?

If you’re like me you probably want to know what’s in a reference book before you plunk down your money. Nothing’s more frustrating than paying for a book and finding out that it doesn’t include what you thought it did. At the end of the blog (with the author’s permission) I have included the Table of Contents and a number of sample pages.

The book covers the history, how the system worked, and helps you identify the hallmarks you might find on French jewelry or other decorative objects (e.g. silverware, vases, boxes, bowls, candlesticks). The book also has a detailed chart of the various hallmark offices, when they opened and closed, and the marks they used over time. For more details, take a look at the Table of Contents at the end of this post.

If you want to see a step-by-step example of how to use the book to identify a hallmark, follow along with me on our next Blog: " Antique Gold Chain: Is it French or Italian?"

HOW CAN I IDENTIFY MY FRENCH SILVER HALLMARKS OR FRENCH GOLD HALLMARKS?

So the first thing you probably want to know is the type of metal and its purity.

Is it gold, or silver or platinum? Is it rolled gold? Plated silver?

To do this you need to be able to clearly see the hallmark. You can use a Loupe or the macro lens on your camera or smart phone.

If you can get a clear enough picture or idea of what it is, you can then use the Index of Hallmarks, to start your search. Does it look like a Dog or an Eagle or a Greek God? Look it up in the Hallmarks Index, turn to the page referenced and you will see an image of the hallmark.

Does it look like the hallmark on your piece? Is it facing left or right? Does the border match? Does the image match? No, then move on to the next referenced page until you find a match.

When you do find your match, you’ll find the Assay office and the period of time it was used.

Here's an example of a French Silver hallmark.

© Copyright Sugar et Cie

This is from an antique French Silver Serving Pieces Set currently in our Sugar et Cie Home Collection. It is the Minerva Head with a 1 on the forehead which is the hallmark for French Silver 950. The French had two standards for Silver: 950 or 95% purity and 800 or 80% purity. To provide context, Sterling Silver the English Standard is 925 or 92.5% purity.

Here is a picture of the Silver Dessert Set it came from.

© Copyright Sugar et Cie

SO WHY IS THIS BOOK ON FRENCH HALLMARKS DIFFERENT FROM ALL OF THE OTHER ONES THAT CAME BEFORE IT?

There are a couple of things worth mentioning. Published for the first time, this book has a detailed table that lists all the assay office marks employed in France and the 58 European towns occupied by France during the Napoleonic wars.

The identification of these tiny marks within the hallmarks permits a more accurate dating of jewelry and silverware, thanks to the listing of the opening and closing dates of all the assay offices in this book.

You may also be surprised to know that there were many errors in other published books on French Hallmarks. I know I was.

Jean-Claude Frediani, the President of the National Chamber of Experts on Jewellery who wrote the preface for the book explains it this way “I commend the author for his dedication and his insistence on only publishing content that has been carefully verified. The most common practice for some authors of books on jewellery and gemstones is to carefully copy the information (and errors) from previous books, errors which, over the course of the publications and the years, begin to masquerade as truth.”

Unfortunately, with AI, this is happening quite a bit on the internet too. Doing your fist pass of research for free on the internet is not a bad idea. However, if you want a reliable, independently researched reference guide, with all of the information in one place, you’ll probably want to make a modest investment in a book.

BUY THE BOOK: PRECIOUS METAL HALLMARKS

If you want to buy the book, you can purchase it directly from the author at Osprey Paris via the link below.

This is not an affiliate link. I am not receiving any compensation.

French Precious Metal Hallmarks

It may just be easier to email the author directly to order and ask for a PayPal invoice. You can contact Mike at bijouregional@gmail.com. If you mention Sugar et Cie, he'll waive the shipping.