The Four Hundred Marxman Pipe Owner's Thread
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I came across another Four Hundred stummel. The restoration is complete but the blog write up is not. Here are a couple of photos of the before and after. This one is also stamped "E". The blog will be posted on March 12, 2025. I'd love to include the link but fear I'd Join Van in PM.com purgatory.
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Yeah, I saw those on your FB post . Very pretty 400.
The blog is now posted for those who follow my restorations. If you would like the link PM and I'd be happy to share it with you.
At $2924/ounce it only got a gold plated band from the Vermont Freehand boys.
I suspect the original Four Hundred bands were only plated, but yours doesn’t have any yellow to it; it looks silver in the photos.
Here is a phone photo from the restoration.
You suspect correctly. I have two 400s. If I were to guess, I would say it is more likely “rolled gold “. The gold can wear - and they do. The bands are stamped 14k.
A bit of legalities.
The watch case makers and ring merchants were scamming so many of their own customers the USA made a law sometime in the twenties that ornaments such as gold bands must be properly stamped with a hallmark.
I own a Royal with a 14K RGP band, that’s 14/24 pure fine rolled gold plate.
My two 400s and all the others I suppose are stamped (hallmarked) 14K—-that’s all—-14K.
That means 14/24 percent solid fine gold.
And back then the gold cost less than a dollar.
In the US the Hallmarking of metals is not enforced like in the UK, because there is no law regarding this here. We jewelers are NOT obligated to hallmark our work at all. Are you really a lawyer?A bit of legalities.
The watch case makers and ring merchants were scamming so many of their own customers the USA made a law sometime in the twenties that ornaments such as gold bands must be properly stamped with a hallmark.
I own a Royal with a 14K RGP band, that’s 14/24 pure fine rolled gold plate.
My two 400s and all the others I suppose are stamped (hallmarked) 14K—-that’s all—-14K.
That means 14/24 percent solid fine gold.
And back then the gold cost less than a dollar.
Check out the US National Gold and Silver Marking Act, which was never enforced.
I hate to digress, but your post made recall this hilarious story told by former Alabama football coach (and fellow West Virginia native) Nick Saban:Story time, involving bragging size pipes and pretty girls.
Campbelitte mothers make Jewish mothers look as negligent as feral cats.
My mother always told me not to worry about getting married. After I’d graduated medical or law school and had been out in practice anout ten years she’d be happy to set me up with one of the daughters of her friends. And she was deadly serious, about that, underneath the smiles when she said it.
Then my second year at UMKC I met a lovely young girl from Nevada Missouri who was a part time model, looked like a young Emmylou Harris, and whose Daddy owned a chain of a dozen banks.
What she saw in me I could not figure, but she claimed she liked my manners and wit.
My mother pretended to like her so she might someday see her grandchildren.
But one day while my true love and I were strolling on the ultra swank and ritzy Country Club Plaza, we stopped into a new Dairy Queen franchise and to my surprise a young man named K B from Humansville was the owner.
Country Club Plaza | Kansas City's Favorite Shopping & Dining District
Explore 15 blocks of shopping and dining in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri with 100 stores, 30 restaurants, and amazing architecture.countryclubplaza.com
He left his operation to the care of minions while he sat at a table smoking an impossibly large and beautful Nording freehand.
KB was likely in his early thirties and he claimed to know my sweetheart’s father, and also other members of her mother’s family at Osceola, and she smiled and blinked her double eyelashes and admired his pipe.
She asked him where he’d bought his pipe and KB directed her to a pipe shop in the Plaza.
We left KB to mind his store and strolled to that pipe shop where my girl asked to see the Nording pipes and I selected the forty dollar grade 3, that has a small dimple on the side. She offered to buy it for me, but I’ve always had my pride although it came within three dollars of busting me until I could get to the bank.
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We went out by the fountains and I filled my new Nording and asked what she thought about KB.
She said he has a lovely family on the wall of his new Dairy Queen.
Maybe you should remember that, if you smoke that pipe when I’m not around.
I’d reckon I pretended to be a lawyer for 41 years, and counting .:)
Thanks for the citation I knew it existed but is seldom enforced.
Except I see some lawyers just waiting like a spider to enforce it.
Xxxx
In 1906, the United States enacted its own legislation, governing and regulating the hallmarking of precious metals. This in turn blends an interesting, and often overlooked, convergence of consumer protection and trademark law. 15 U.S.C. §§ 291 et seq., often referred to as the “National Stamping Act,” makes it unlawful for any person—being a manufacturer of or wholesale or retail dealer in gold or silver—to import or export, or cause to be imported or exported or otherwise transported in interstate commerce—“any article of merchandise manufactured after June 13, 1907, and made in whole or in part of gold or silver, or any alloy of either of said metals, and having been stamped, branded, engraved, or printed thereon . . . any mark or word indicating or designed to indicate that the gold or silver or alloy of either of said metals in such article is of a greater degree of fineness than the actual fineness or quality of such gold, silver, or alloy, according to the standards and subject to the qualifications set forth in sections 295 and 296 of this title.”
All That Glitters is Not Gold: Private Cause of Action for Violation of the National Stamping Act - Business Law Section of The Florida Bar
By Matthew Akiba If you have ever bought jewelry, invested in a silver or gold bar, or inherited a family heirloom, you may have noticed that the precious metal is often stamped with intricate hallmarks. These hallmarks may indicate the purity of the precious metal, convey the year the article...
flabizlaw.org
Xxxxx
I was happily retired in the barber shop next to my old office today after a milk run to court, because I knew not to mess with laws I was not an expert in.
Those I refer to experts and stay on the case as local counsel, for a considerable fee.
And any lawyer who is a Dan Seals fan gets my referral every time.
Prior to applying for law school, I worked as a cataloguer for a South Florida auction house and spent a considerable amount of time straining my eyes through a small loop or magnifying glass to decipher these small hallmarks and to properly convey the approximate date, manufacturer, and origin of a particular item of jewelry, silver candelabras, or gold snuff boxes. It was not until I became a lawyer that I became interested in understanding what the implications of these hallmarks were under the law, and what regulations govern a manufacturer or retailer engaged in the sale of precious metals, such as silver, gold or platinum.
Xxxxx
Ask me about Social Security and I’ll help you if I decide I want to help you.
I was thirteen years old in 1971 and my Daddy had died and I opened our mail box a half mile South of Bug Tussle and inside was a Social Security check made to Mama but for me.
I had that sixty dollars spent before I reached the house.
If you and I both want you to get Social Security benefits I think you should legally be due, I’m never retired.
I have a 10 carat gold filled Elgin cased 1950 Elgin 571 I carry in my pocket each hearing I have before the Social Security Administration and it’s exactly like my first boss had when I was 15, Red Mauzey had in the glove box of his hundred dollar pickup.
I asked Red, what are those marks?
Robert Eugene Mauzey (1932-1997) - Find a Grave...
www.findagrave.com
His parents gave Red his in 1949 when he graduated Dunnegan High School, and before the Korean War.
It is a fine weapon to get tears in the eye of a Social Security judge, you know?
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It would never make it to court. I've been a member of AGS and GIA for over 30 years now, and it is a defunct act that was never enforced. Like it being illegal to give a mule ice cream. We are told NOT to hallmark unless we are also trading in the UK or EU. We also have no assay offices in the US, so what good would taking someone to court over this be?
However, if you buy from one jeweler who said it was 18k and you took it next door to have it tested, and it was 14k, you'd just be out of a customer.
The UK and EU can enforce hallmarks because they do have state assayers, which is a pain in the ass, because every piece you make has to go through their offices. So, you make it, and then submit it, and maybe a few weeks later you get it back to sell it.
The US is more like the Wild West when it comes to metals. But, if I lived in the UK or EU, I just wouldn't be a jeweler.
Read the advertisement closely.
Xxxx
Finally, an important aspect of the National Stamping Act is that it creates a private cause of action, entitling “[a]ny competitor, customer, or competitor of a customer of any person in violation of [the Act], or any subsequent purchaser of an article of merchandise which has been the subject of violation” to bring suit for injunctive relief and for damages in any United States District Court in which the defendant resides or has an agent, “without respect to the amount in controversy.” 15 U.S.C. §298(b) (emphasis added). Further, the Act provides for the recovery of costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees in bringing the action. Id.
The same holds true for “any duly organized and existing jewelry trade association
You will find plenty of non-stamped gold and silver products for sale at any of the large trade shows. I'm going to guess that lawyers just don't go to those?
I hope that if I ever need a lawyer, he/she is not the sort that just uses the first result in any Google search on my behalf.
I hope that if I ever need a lawyer, he/she is not the sort that just uses the first result in any Google search on my behalf.
You will find plenty of non-stamped gold and silver products for sale at any of the large trade shows. I'm going to guess that lawyers just don't go to those?
I hope that if I ever need a lawyer, he/she is not the sort that just uses the first result in any Google search on my behalf.
I’m a social security specialist today in my retirement, and never was or pretended to me a gold and silver stamp specialist, although there’s at least one we know of.
But as I understand the legalities, you can peddle all the fake gold and silver you want—-
But you cannot fake stamps
I’m about the worst teacher there ever was, but you only get into legal trouble (maybe) if the article is stamped, but not properly according to law.
For example this stamp is 100% geniune.
That is 10 karat gold filled—
This is a geniune 1950 571 B W Raymond
But the unstamped chain is as fake as a three dollar bill.
I bought that watch from a certified watchmaker who learned the trade in the US Army watch schools during WW2.
Glasscock Jewelry Corner
(660) 885-3909
Google Search - https://g.co/kgs/zkkuUmy
Maybe twenty years ago I invested $300 to have a righteous watch to carry in my pocket during SSA hearings.
I’m not superstitious but I carry it to all my SSA hearings, in case I might need it.
We need all kinds of specialists in this old world, you know?
Sing one Moe Bandy!
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Yes, now you've got it. I do have a registered Maker's Mark, but my suggestion to new jewelers coming up in the field is just not to hallmark their work, till they have established a trade where it become necessary, such as international trades, etc...