GENOD Hallmarks?

[vlodko]

Just finished renewal of this lightweight Genod canadian pipe, but couldn't sort out the hallmarks on its collar.

As far I understood there are no mandatory silver hallmarks in France since 1832 or so. Providing the Genod brand was introduced around 1970 the hallmarks are rather for decoration.

"G <pipe> V" should stand for "Genod Viou" (French artisan Paul Viou sold his brand firstly to Paul Guilland and since 2006 it's owned by Genod, thus the pipe isn't very old in fact).

But symbols on the other side confuse me a lot. "Flame", "R" and "V"? Or they don't mean any letters? Any hints will be sincerely appreciated!

 

[mso489]

I can't help with the hallmarks but that is one of the more handsome lithe Canadian shapes (I think it is) I have seen. I really like my one Genod, a bent egg, for it's pocket size and great big bowl. Iwan Ries has its house pipes made by Genod these days after years with Benton, and later Sav.

 

[vlodko]

I can't help with the hallmarks but that is one of the more handsome lithe Canadian shapes (I think it is) I have seen. I really like my one Genod, a bent egg, for it's pocket size and great big bowl. Iwan Ries has its house pipes made by Genod these days after years with Benton, and later Sav.

Thank you. I've seen only a few Genod pipes "in person", but each of them was really remarkable.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

But symbols on the other side confuse me a lot. "Flame", "R" and "V"? Or they don't mean any letters? Any hints will be sincerely appreciated!

In Europe and the US, for us metalsmiths to put a hallmark stating what the metal is, it has to be followed by our registered hallmark, which is usually letters, or symbols, or just whatever pictograph we want to use. Mine is a logo of a M and a J melded together.
Those hallmarks probably don't belong to Genod, but whomever does the bands for them. If you are interested, you can get books with all registered hallmarks sold by country. But, they are not easy to use. And, there have been billions of registered hallmarks in each country over the centuries.

But, that is a pretty pipe. Very nice. Enjoy.

 

[vlodko]

In Europe and the US, for us metalsmiths to put a hallmark stating what the metal is, it has to be followed by our registered hallmark, which is usually letters, or symbols, or just whatever pictograph we want to use. Mine is a logo of a M and a J melded together.
Those hallmarks probably don't belong to Genod, but whomever does the bands for them. If you are interested, you can get books with all registered hallmarks sold by country. But, they are not easy to use. And, there have been billions of registered hallmarks in each country over the centuries.

But, that is a pretty pipe. Very nice. Enjoy.

Thanks a lot! I am more or less understand how to read UK hallmarks, but French silver became a challenge

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I am more or less understand how to read UK hallmarks

You can understand them? I'm not even sure what it means to understand them, ha ha. I saw one a few months ago that was from England that was just a squiggly line with a dot at each end. They are mostly used to look up who the artist was in case the metal turns out to be stamped in a wrong karat. Silver... no one really cares about silver, because it really isn't all that valuable, comparatively speaking. Your not going to get rich by adding more copper to the silver to make an extra dollar per oz.

 

[mso489]

Did the state (monarchy etc.) mandate hallmarks, and was there a tax involved? Why was metal especially marked in that way?

 

[vlodko]

You can understand them? I'm not even sure what it means to understand them, ha ha. I saw one a few months ago that was from England that was just a squiggly line with a dot at each end. They are mostly used to look up who the artist was in case the metal turns out to be stamped in a wrong karat. Silver... no one really cares about silver, because it really isn't all that valuable, comparatively speaking. Your not going to get rich by adding more copper to the silver to make an extra dollar per oz.

Hope you don't think I am too self-confident My friends from UK did send me an old book with hallmarks so with regards to pipes it works quite straightforward: city of issue + a letter do define a year. That's all what I know ))

 

[vlodko]

Did the state (monarchy etc.) mandate hallmarks, and was there a tax involved? Why was metal especially marked in that way?

It seems it was rather the question of purity of silver, governments wanted to control silversmiths in such the way.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Did the state (monarchy etc.) mandate hallmarks, and was there a tax involved? Why was metal especially marked in that way?

It goes back to the minting of coins. The king would mint coins, but anyone really could make their own as well. They just had to hallmark them so as to trace back the purity of the metals to the jeweler who struck it.
Jewelry is still considered currency to some extent. It was a way for the rich to carry their wealth across borders without the existence of banks.
In the US, it is the honor system, as no one regulates hallmarks. But, In the EU now, a jeweler has to take his work to be hallmarked by the government before he can sell it. And, nowadays the hallmarks are imprinted with lasers.

But, it is likened to putting your signature on a check, except with silver, the check is merely made out for less than $0.25. Because the bands are so thin that there's really no weight at all in them. It's kinda pointless to hallmark them. I think they do it just to add some importance to the pipe. But, they could use 18k gold, and it would still only be about $5 worth of metal.