Thread: ALP ITALY mark?
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Old April 25th 05, 05:55 AM
Jenny
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"Ted Frater" wrote in message
...
Jenny wrote:
Hi, everyone.

Would someone please inform me what this "ALP ITALY" mark is? I searced
the
Web a little and didn't find much, but I don't know the best sites to
search
anyway.

I found the stamp on the back of some silver jewelry I bought at some
recent
estate sales.

Any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you ever so much.

Jenny


Hi Jenny,
As Abrasha said, Alp is an abbreviation for alpacca, which is another
name for nickel brass. Usually about 5 to 10% instead of the zinc
element in the alloy.
However you say you bought some jewellery in an estate sale , how was it
actually described? in the catalogue?
because jewellery thats silver coloured!! could be made of any white
or even other coloured metal silver plated.
Its also highly unusual for jewellery to be made from nickel brass,
its much harder than other white non ferrous alloys and more expensive
it being mainly used as the base for silver plated table ware ie cutlery.
Can you describe or post an image of the jewellery somewhere? so we can
see it? the other way to help you identify what its made of is to polish
up the back of the jewelley piece to show the true colour and then to
comp[are it to a polished "sterling" silver item. If youve reasonable
colour vision youll immediately tell the difference. The N Brass will
have a distinctly yellow tinge. Apart from its artistic value to you, as
metal its relatively worthless.
It depends how far you plan to persue your enquiries, the quickest way
to find out is to take it to a working silversmith who just by the feel
of the metal will be able to tell you what it is.
If you give 2 similar size and thickness say table forks or spoons to
such a smith one being sterling silver the other nickel brass or
alpacca, he will be able to tell which is which without lookling at
them, just by the way it reasponds in the hand.
Let us know how you get on with this.
Ted Frater.


The piece I'm talking about is a wide bracelet. It didn't have a written
description, but I like the look of it, and it was so inexpensive, I didn't
bother asking about the metal. It appears to be old and has 4 curved panels
hinged together to make the circumferance. The width is just over an inch.
Each panel has a large blue stone with ornate "silver" sculpting around the
stone. The stone looks to be tourquoise. All 4 panels are designed the same.
Before posting here, I had tried silver polish and got the yellow
discoloration that you described.

Thanks for your help.

Jenny


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