Marc Parrod Wine Taster Heavy Taste-vin LeBlanc Fixin Antique?  .950 Silver     This is a very nice Marc Parrod wine taster.  Parrod worked in Dijon c. 1903-1944.  He is sometimes called a faker, I disagree. He made reproductions, good ones, and they are always properly marked. His tasters often had inscriptions from the 18th and early 19th centuries, but presumably the purchasers wanted them engraved, and perhaps asked that they be engraved with a name and date meaningful to them. The problem is that a lot of dealers, suggest the dates make the tasters older than the guarantee marks.      An 18th c. wine taster with this type of handle would certainly cost over a thousand dollars. It is engraved on the handle “le bon vin réjouit le coeur” or “good wine rejoices the heart”. On the side it is engraved “ Leblanc Fixin 1811”     The taster is first standard .950 fine silver , better than sterling. Under the chin on the Minerva mark is the Phoenician letter “sade” which means the taster was assayed in Besançon between 1914 and 1944 when the Dijon office was closed.     It weighs 2.95 troy oz or 91.8 grams and is 3 1/4” or  8.3 cm in diameter and 11 cm or 4 5/15 long over handle.    The Minerva and makers mark are clearest on the side, but also can be found on the ring under the handle, and also on the top of the handle, but there the engraving makes them illegible.

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