chemist blance weighting scales ???

dubdvd

A mate of mine was given this by his grand uncle and was wondering how old it would be and is it called a chemist blance weithing scales and where would he sell such an item and what kind of money would you be talking ??
A lot of questions i know but any help here would be great thanks in advance

ODD-JOB

I was just going to say c. 1890 - 1900 , unusual type of scales .
The use of "canted" corners was very late Victorian generally.
The timber looks like a golden stained oak ...which can be easily cleaned up to look acceptable.

The use of that type of white veined marble is typically 1880 - 1910 ,
I think there should be a set group of weights originally, which would graduate in various increments etc.

I was wondering of there was a band of inlay missing or is it ebon strung.
If there is inlay missing , you should see a vacant rectangular groove on the body. that would have an impact on its value , as getting a cabinet maker to inlay it would cost something similar to the value of the scales.

So anyway , I found this example with a broken marble top.... should be something similar in value : http://www.aspireauctions.com/auction61/details/12839.html

McNut

He should stick on ebay.co.uk and run the auction from either sunday to sunday ending between 6 and 9 or from thursday to sunday (10 days )ending between 6 and 9.

He should sell it as is and start the auction at 99p with no reserve.

The more info he gives including the history of the piece,how he came to own it etc in the blurb the better.

Theres plenty of info online about how to word and structure an auction to sell for the max if he spends 20 mins he will learn enough to sell this.

McNut

or better still, tell him i will buy it if he cant be bothered ebaying it but I would need better photos and he needs to understand its not worth much.

dubdvd

Thanks for your help guys very detailed info . I havnt seen him for the past while so i dont know what he has done with it .But thanks all the same

McNut

It seems it might be a tobacco scales.

http://cgi.ebay.fr/RARE-BALANCE-a-TABAC-Usines-de-la-Mulatiere-Mairet-LYON_W0QQitemZ310043522586QQihZ021QQcategoryZ114176QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262