This article is devoted to the marks of silver-plated hollow ware (and trays), issued by the August Wellner & Sons foundry in Aue, Saxony and follows my other paper [1] on the history of this company and its heraldry, which is published in the same ASCAS Newsletter issue. After studying the history of this foundry one can draw the following table containing the evolution of the firm name during different periods of its history.

The marks listed below belong mainly to the second and third period of the company's activity shown in this table, which corresponds to the time when Paul Gaedt was managing the firm (1892-1936). Interestingly, at least twenty different marks plus numerous varieties were used in this time for marking the silver-plated Wellner hollow ware. Before listing these marks, I want to underline the following peculiarities of marking:

1) Twice in c.1892 and in 1927 the new mark was added to the old one, which means that an over-printing of a new mark on the already marked items took place.

2) In the period c.1908-c.1921 two separate lines marking the silver-plated hollow ware were used. I suppose that this was made in order to distinguish the pieces made in new factory buildings from those made in old premises (or with older and newer technologies). Therefore, I called these lines "old" and "new" factories.

3) Contrary to WMF (Württemberg Metal Factory, see my ASCAS paper http://www.ascasonline.org/windowFEBBRA105.html), there is a total absence of dated Wellner silver-plated items issued at the end of XIX or the beginning of XX centuries (except the pieces ordered by steamship companies). This circumstance makes very difficult the exact time attribution of early Wellner items. At the same time it shows the strong difference in fashion existing in different parts of the young German Empire, such as Württemberg and Saxony.

N°	MARK	COMMENT
1		A dice mark of "August Wellner Söhne" company. Very rare. There is no indication of the factory name. The full marking consists of the volume designation (in cl., 1 cl. = 10 cm3), the oval and the circle. In the centre of the oval there is a "Wellner dice" [1]. Note, that with each item the same combination appears on the dice: one pip on the top facet, two pips on the side facet and four pips on the front facet. The inscription in oval "ALPACCA SILBER" means "Silver-plated Alpaca". Two letters "E" and "S" to the left and to the right of the dice (or "I" and "I") justify the quality of silver-plating, «ES» means "Erste Sorte" or "High quality", "I" and "I" refers to the thinner layer of silver [1]. The size of the oval varies from 3.0 mm x 4.0 mm to 4.0 mm x 5.0 mm. In the circle the amount of silver used for plating (in grams) is indicated. The diameter of the circle in the case of a single-digit number is 1.8 mm, in the case of a double-digit number it is 2.2 mm.