Howard wrote:
Gentlemen, many thanks for your interest and replies.
It so happens that the financial storm in the USA has allowed the
above set of silverware
to come to the surface and I have scooped it up, gratefully, on ebay.
I have remained ever since
in awe to the puzzling conjoint Arms. The Noble Count, a member of the
religious Order in the
USA, has volunteered to solve the problem for me- and failed evidently
as I have not heard from
him again. I have spent some hours searching the list of the Provinces
of Austro-Hungarian Empire
and tried to match their Arms to the putative owners of my cutlery. To
no avail, alas.
The Rothschilds would fit in splendidly here, I think. I have the
problem with them, though: they were Jewish
wheeler-dealers of distinction, not short of the bob or two. Why would
a Rothschild have to go to the pawn shop
or some such establishement in order to raise a miserly thousand
dollars or so for my dozen of spoons and forks?
The plot thickens as they say.
As an easy to solve puzzle, please have a look at this Coat of Arms,
adorning my other treasured set:
http://s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj51/swiniopas/?action=view¤t=BrunswickArms.jpg
It does carry the House Order of Heinrich der Lowe and the Order of
the Garter.
Who did it belong to, before it did fall into my unworthy lap?
fatso
I have included a better picture of the Arms in the original question:
