Hi Jeanette - what a nice surprise when you cleaned the tarnish of this old locket! You will have to let us know what method you used? Whatever it was it certainly worked!
Refined silver is mixed with copper to meet the requirements to be called "sterling". It's purity has been regulated for hundreds of years and in Great Britain hallmarking silver began over 700 years ago.
You have more than one store of value here. There is the silver component which is based on the current gold and silver prices. Weight is a determining factor. Then you have the antique store of value.
The locket has the jewelers mark, which will add to its value and then you have the rarity factor - the eight sided shape is very unusual. I have seen a heart shape victorian locket that opened to reveal three slots for coins.
The shape of the locket can often provide important clues. Not all lockets where used for storing photographs.
I would love to see a photo of the plastic inserts that were used to hold the photos in place. (You can upload another photo in a follow-up submission if you like and I will add to this submission) Now the inserts are plastic, so the locket would be circa 1920s and the jewelry markings will be those of:
F.M. Co Finberg Mfg. Co, 140 Park St., Attleboro, Mass.
I personally love old silver, the metal takes on such a beautiful patina with age.
thanks for writing to us... Yvonne Hammouda-Eyre If you would like to join the Antique Jewelry Investor community and stay up to date with all the latest Antique jewelry news, click here....
