Any person making for sale, selling, or offering to sell or dispose of, or having in possession with intent to sell or dispose of, any article of merchandise made in whole or in part of silver or of any alloy of silver and having marked, stamped, branded, engraved, or imprinted thereon, or upon any tag, card, or label attached thereto, or upon any container in which said article is enclosed, the words “sterling silver” or “sterling” or any colorable imitation thereof, unless nine hundred twenty-five one-thousandths of the component parts of the metal purporting to be silver of which such article is manufactured are pure silver, subject to the qualifications hereinafter set forth, is guilty of a fraudulent practice, but in the case of all such articles there shall be allowed a divergence in fineness of four one-thousandths parts from the foregoing standard.