Good day to all the Collectibulldogs viewers and readers, I’m hoping all are safe and well as usual where ever you are.

I have not thought of a title yet for this particular blog as there will be a bit of a mixture but I’m sure one will come to me as I’m tap tapping away.

In this blog I would like to show case the Silver pieces we have here in the collection which will dip in and out of the jewellery section too so let’s start with the largest and work our way through the collection.

Here is a beautiful piece if I may say so, the seated bulldog here looks amazing sitting next to the glass inkwell and the stand has amazing detail yet the whole piece has a tranquil simplicity to its form.

Stunning silver bulldogs

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The First three are actual silver hallmarked bulldog figurines, the largest piece with the outwards tail is a personal favourite of mine.

He’s about 8 inches in length has a good weight, the hallmarks are dating that this piece was made in 1906 in Chester and was destined for the German export market.

The piece is well chased with some lovely patina and a detailed collar, I’ve not seen another like him yet but hope to the future.

The second largest piece was bought from Griffen jewellery store, I first saw it on eBay and the price was to high for everyone so it was up for ages.

I contacted the store had a chat and after 20 minutes I had arranged a payment plan so that this Victorian style antique bulldog could come and help show case the quality of the Collectibulldogs collection and was the first silver bulldog I ever bought.

The third piece is a little double hallmarked bulldog from the London store Harrods.

He’s about three inches in length and has some great enamelled detail on the face, the date on the receipt specifies 2010 when purchased but to get the real date I would have to look up the hallmarks, yet I feel that date is about right for a small modern piece and it’s not often antique or vintage silver got double hall marked unless special in some way.

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Dun hill silver

So that’s the three actual figurines we have here and now to move on to other silver pieces.

The silver bulldog key ring is made by dun hill and is part of their quality collectors merchandise the little fella is double hallmarked and weighs in at around 80grams.

There are two phone/zip fobs too these are also Dunhill and have hallmarks on the back. Dun hill have made other pieces you can obtain like the money clip but this is all we have from this maker thus far.

Moving on and the next two pieces are a treat for us here at Collectibulldogs because we managed to find this piece in silver and cold painted bronze, both are match vestas that would of held loss matches and both have their strike on the underneath.

The silver object can be dated to 1909 but as bronze is not stamped the same way I cannot say of both are from the same year.

Chunky bling

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I think it would be easy to just categorise these next pieces as chunky jewellery they are way to big to be charm size and a couple are bangles and pendants, the first piece is a pot I bought last year.

Again it has been hallmarked twice but I’m to believe this is because the piece detaches and would prove the top and the bottom are both sterling silver.

I love the gold gilt seen inside the pot a real sign of quality I think.

Next is the bangle is a real gem, the silver band has bulldog heads adorned around it and each head has a set of gemstone set eyes.

I have not dated this piece but would hazard a guess at it being made in the eighties and pictured with the bangle is a brooch I found with the same head and together sort of makes the two pieces a set.

The last of this bunch is the chunky pendants in the shape of bulldogs these are larger than life pendants stamped and both weighing over an ounce each, one piece has so much detail you can make out the writing on the piece, these are the only larger pendants we have here but we do have many.

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Continuing with pendants there are a few smaller ones that we have too, one is a stunning whistle made from sterling silver and has a bulldog head at the end, the piece is wonderfully made has the tiniest hallmarks but so professionally stamped and the chasing on the bulldogs face for such a small piece is exquisite.

The next is a bulldog head pendant but with a ring being grasped in he’s mouth. This piece is a follow on from a beautiful bracelet you can now buy on auction sites that has two bulldog heads meeting up to create the piece, we here didn’t go ahead with getting said piece as the jewellers bronze content on the piece didn’t justify the high prices being asked for.

I will mention more jewellery pieces further down the blog.

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Prickly soft landings

Pincushions come in all sizes when it comes to bulldogs!!

Who knew lol, we only have one proper antique silver pincushion here and he’s dated to around 1900, the detailing is a little primitive and similar pieces have more detail to their collars yet they still carry the same charm as they did over 100 years ago, standing on the side of a ladies sewing table full of old vintage pins (would not of been vintage then).

The smaller pieces I have shown are way more modern and only carry their silver certification stamp which for UK silver is 925, if you look closely there are two pair types one set has ruby red eyes and a more 20th century look about them.

The best silver in my opinion comes from the states they have the highest silver content in their industry using 999 and in Russia I think it’s 800, this just means how much silver per 1000 parts is used when producing this precious metal and changes in differing countries.

In England silver has to be stamped to classed as silver if not its seen as white metal and loses its value, high end pieces can be re stamped if worn away but has to be done by an expert that records and catalogues it.

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Hmmmm

Mystery piece!!!

I bought this little silver bulldog last year from a fella on a popular auction site and it was listed as a heavy silver mustard pot.

BUT didn’t have any markings which for a piece of such quality is quite rare, I took the gambit bought the piece and had it tested.

The results were for silver but as my test was for silver only I cannot say yet where it was made as I do not know the silver content it’s made up from, there’s many other countries out there and I do not have a clue if all of them stamp their silver or not so getting round to curating this piece properly maybe a bit of a challenge but I feel due to its age and weight I got a good deal even at the dreaded scrap value price.

Antique cutlery

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Silver club tableware has grown over the past few years here at Collectibulldogs but it’s the one sub collection that evades my mind I never remember when I have bought silver cutlery yet there sits around 25 spoons in different sizes and a few forks too.

I love the history behind these pieces they are lovely to look at all shiny and gleaming but it’s the names and dates on the back that interest me.

Yes they are hallmarked but more importantly these were presented as gifts to winners and had winning info engraved on the back. We have a few rarer club spoons here too the reason behind them being more impressive is the fact the clubs that some of these came from either disbanded or merged back in the 19th century.

As a collector I would love to see a knife version if they did that too but so far I’ve found just forks and spoons.

I believe there’s a set on EBay at the moment a bit like mine there’s 25 display set club spoons for $1-500 that’s nearly £1000 English, most will say to much and I would agree if they were just plain pieces but if they have winners on the back of each one your looking at a lot of bulldog history there.

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Pure indulgence

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The next bunch of pictures are going to be a wide selection of jewellery type pieces including many rings smaller pendants brooches charms tiny spoons (mustard) and there’s a couple of pots I recently found that are small in size yet fantastically detailed on the enamelled lids.

I’ve included the silver medals and coins too the oldest silver medal shows for 1893 and this was won at Earl’s Court for the weight limit class back then at 45lb.

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Silver

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SILVER, this is a beautiful metal and anyone with such a diverse collection of pieces is very lucky and I’m no different but there is a major down side to collecting silver for investment collecting and that’s the metals scrap value predicament.

I have been the conduit that has saved these pieces but there’s literally thousands of historical pieces out there that if not are bought even at a loss will end up as a quick return for somebody and history itself will end up in the melting pot.

I do not recommend start up collectors picking silver to start with unless they have deep pockets and willing to take a loss on most of the pieces they buy, this does not always happen and some pieces still hold a retail price but these pieces come and go with what’s trending in the auction world.

Keep it gleaming

Cleaning silver is a right pain in the bulldogs if you ask me and it’s the only part of the collection that has my arms hurting when I’ve finished.

There are many ways to clean silver from normal soapy water to shop bought de-tarnishing liquid depending on the piece how dirty it’s become and any Areas hard to get to.

Once cleaned a good polish always brings these pieces back to life a couple of tips would be if you have used a cleaning liquid make sure you then clean that off with water before polishing and another tip is try and use gloves when handling silver, human contact with silver antique pieces is a no no and this stops any acids from your fingers/hands getting onto the silver.

Silvery summation

At Collectibulldogs we have become very proud to of saved so many pieces that might not of otherwise stayed as they are but ending up instead as silver bullion bars or someone’s next Pandora charm, the next generation can still see how important the bulldog world has always been when there was a time that real precious metals were used for shows and it was real gold silver and bronzes that show competitors won and most made by the top silversmiths of the time.

I hope this blog gives you a little insight into the metals section to Collectibulldogs and if you wish to view the page in full just click here and this will take you to a page full of collectibles made from all different metals as the silver sub collection is a tiny proportion of the pieces here at Collectibulldogs.com.

So folks have a great Sunday and until next time have fun and happy collecting out there…