Commander's Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy, who knows the manufacturer?

[Carlo]

  

Hello everyone, for a while now I have had this Commander's Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy in my collection, contained in a velvet-lined box imprinted with the monogram of King Vittorio Emanuele III.

Both the body of the cross and the ribbon ring are marked with the letter A, but up until now I haven't been able to figure out what they mean.

Does anyone know?

 

Carlo

[Graf]

Nice Cross

A is for Silver Sometimes they are marked 800 T

Although the central medallion looked rose gold

 

[JapanX]

On 03/04/2023 at 16:44, Carlo said:

  

who knows the manufacturer?

 

Looks like a typical Cravanzola-made cross.

 

On 03/04/2023 at 16:44, Carlo said:

Both the body of the cross and the ribbon ring are marked with the letter A, but up until now I haven't been able to figure out what they mean. Does anyone know?

 

Most likely some kind of a technical marks that were used by manufacturer/manufacturers. Orders of the Crown with marks "T2", "O", "GD" are also known.   

 

Best,

Nick 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2023 by JapanX

[Graf]

3 hours ago, JapanX said:

 

Looks like a typical Cravanzola-made cross.

 

 

Most likely some kind of a technical marks that were used by manufacturer/manufacturers. Orders of the Crown with marks "T2", "O", "GD" are also known.   

 

Best,

Nick 

 

 

Yes it is possible If the whole cross is in Gold then the A is not relevant to the material that was used

Although most of the Silver Crosses are marked 800 I assumed that the A could be Argenti the Italian for Silver, however it could be the makers. Province mark as well

 

[Carlo]

On 04/04/2023 at 23:36, Graf said:

Nice Cross

A is for Silver Sometimes they are marked 800 T

Although the central medallion looked rose gold

 

Thanks! I am quite convinced that the medallion is gold, when it arrived one of the two medallions was detached, and the color inside looked just like rose gold

On 05/04/2023 at 03:52, Graf said:

Yes it is possible If the whole cross is in Gold then the A is not relevant to the material that was used

Although most of the Silver Crosses are marked 800 I assumed that the A could be Argenti the Italian for Silver, however it could be the makers. Province mark as well

 

This is true, it could be the initial of silver (Argento in Italian) even if in real life it does not appear to be of this material.

[JapanX]

È proprio vero, il silenzio è d'oro. Well, that'll teach me. 

[Graf]

Hi japan,X

 

In Vino Veritas

4 hours ago, JapanX said:

È proprio vero, il silenzio è d'oro. Well, that'll teach me. 

 

Cheers

The fact is that from time to time some pieces with unusual marks will keep popping up and we have to try to find out what they are as far our knowledge allow us. But that the purpose and beauty of those Forums

Regards

 

[farmer]

Adding to the conversation, this can also mean that manufacturer did not have all gold parts and substituted some in silver (gilded or not) and thus stamped these parts 'A' for Argento. Italian manufacturers were not super observant in terms of hallmarking and some did more then others but their system was not very well defined or stringent prior to 1934 regulations (which took couple of years to implement nation-wide).

I would discount the province, as this was usually two letter code but on an off chance, could have indicated the city of production, the only 3 that come to mind are Alessandria, Asti and Arezzo.

I also agree that this may have been product of Cravanzola but this firm has gone through so many changes - while retaining the name to some extent and by 1920's it did not manufacture everything yet was one of the biggest retailers of orders and decorations in Italy. Thus, this may have been a sub-contracted item and the actual maker (for argument's sake - let's say Alberti) made the item and marked it before sending off to whoever marketed the final product and had it cased (cases themselves were usually sourced out and printed with name of the retailer or the manufacturer).