This complete set of Marx & Gutherz (Carlsbad) 140-year-old 12 fish plates and matching 22-inch-long platter are in mint condition. The set was a wedding gift to my paternal-paternal great-grandparents, who were married Jan. 16, 1890, in Washington, D.C., where I was born 61 years later. Yeah, my late father and I were genealogical geeks, and now I am the old turkey in the family.
But I digress...There is absolutely no wear on these gorgeous specimens which were handmade and hand-painted sometime between 1885-89, according to the research I have done on them, but I have not been able to pinpoint the exact year. And I have not been able to find a similar complete set here on eBay since I inherited them a half-dozen years ago. We have a house full of collectibles, including 19th pottery, canning jars, china, fishing gear, laboratory glass, model trains, woodworking tools, scales, microscopes, etc., not to mention the thousands upon thousands of coins, which are my true passion. Thus, I have no place to properly display these truly amazing plates.
The scalloping is edged with gold gilding and there is not a single mark on any of the edges or even on the raised portion of the bottom side of the plates, as I have tried to exhibit in some of the photos. My father's parents, who inherited them never used them, according to my grandmother, who died in 1997 at 93 on my 46th birthday.
I have been buying and selling coins and small antique and vintage items here on eBay since 1998, or just about longer than anyone else according to the folks at eBay. I will pay for the insurance on shipping and wrestle with FedEx if they break anything, as the USPS did with a 150-year-old washbowl and matching pitcher I sent to my youngest sister in Nevada a few years ago.
If you have a question, please do not hesitate to ask it, because as a long-retired newspaper editor I well know that the only dumb question is the one not asked.