Can you read the (possibly Hebrew) word on the bottom of this salt shaker?
August 8, 2011 9:11 PM   Subscribe

Can you read the (possibly Hebrew) word on the bottom of this salt shaker?

Asking for a friend who bought a set of four sterling silver shakers recently. Here is the clearest picture we could get of the stamp through a loupe, but note that we are not sure about the orientation and it may be upside down. The shortest row is the number 31 enclosed in a half circle and the middle row should be 925 (for 92.5 percent silver). Another shaker has St. 925 clearly stamped on the bottom of it. The shakers themselves are pretty small. Another shaker has the number 30 in the half circle.

This set was purchased from a Jewish man who was very enthusiastic about his heritage in the brief time it took for the sale to complete. To me, it looks like the middle character is Shin and the first two from the right are Yod and then Reish. Can you read the rest of the letters? Any idea if this is even Hebrew writing?
posted by soelo to Writing & Language (6 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: The orientation is correct and the first word is ירושלים (Jerusalem).

I can't figure out the second word. My Hebrew is not that great and it's pretty blurry.
posted by rancidchickn at 9:17 PM on August 8, 2011


The Hebrew-reading boyfriend confirms Jerusalem for the top word. He says the bottom one is too blurry- maybe it's just a date? 1935?
posted by charmedimsure at 9:54 PM on August 8, 2011


For the second word: Instead of taking pictures through a loupe, can you try using the macro (usually denoted by a flower icon) setting on a camera set to the highest resolution? Then you can blow the picture up to a high magnification using Picasa or some other image program (cropping if necessary.) I've found this to work really well when trying to ID tiny bugs - the focus is sharper.
posted by needs more cowbell at 10:08 PM on August 8, 2011


Do a rubbing and the photograph that. If you use graphite, then the rubbing will be a lot easier to photograph because it'll be flat (when you photo it), the contrast will be high, and it won't be shiny.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:11 PM on August 8, 2011


On the bottom word, that last letter is definitely a lamed.
posted by juniperesque at 7:14 AM on August 9, 2011


Response by poster: Thanks everyone! He doesn't have them with him today and all we had yesterday was my iPhone.
posted by soelo at 11:47 AM on August 9, 2011


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