DAVID-ANDERSEN

This is the maker's and standard purity mark used by David-Andersen, the prominent Norwegian silversmithing firm founded in Christiania (now Oslo) by David Andersen in 1876. The strike consists of the maker's full hyphenated name, the country of origin ("NORWAY"), and a dual silver purity designation combining the English standard word "STERLING" with the Scandinavian numerical fineness mark "925S" (indicating 925 parts pure silver per 1,000).

Pieces carrying this mark span the mid-20th century, representing Norway's influential post-war Modernist and Scandinavian design movements. The firm is widely recognized for both its vitreous guilloché enamel work and its sculptural, cast sterling jewelry produced from the late 1950s through the 1970s by renowned in-house designers such as Marianne Berg, Bjørn Sigurd Østby, Willy Winnaess, and Uni David-Andersen.

This all-caps linear block mark can be distinguished from 19th- and early 20th-century David-Andersen marks, which often featured pictorial symbols like pincers/pliers, script lettering, or lower purity standards such as "830S". It should also be checked for accompanying designer signatures or initials, such as "INV. U.D-A" or "INV. M.B.", which frequently appear alongside this primary workshop strike to credit individual contributing artists.

As struck on the pieces recorded here, the full run of stamps reads “DAVID-ANDERSEN NORWAY STERLING 925S”.