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poliphilo I love an opportunity to show off.
Helen has an old silver spoon and I offered to read the hallmarks for her.
'Tain't difficult. You need to know how the system works (which you can learn in a minute or two) and have a book or website to hand which explains the symbols.
Here's a typical set of marks. (Not Helen's)
From left to right they are:
1. The maker's initials. Stephen Smith
2, The lion passant which tells us that this is English sterling silver. (Scotland has a thistle, Ireland has a harp)
3. The leopard mask which tells us the silver was assayed in London. Other cities with assay offices have their own symbols, for instance Birmingham's is an anchor.
4. A letter that gives us the year 1871. As the years scroll past so does the alphabet- and when we reach Z we return to A, but in a different typeface.
5. The monarch's head which is something to do with tax but also serves to inform us that (in this case) the piece is Victorian.
Incidentally Helen's spoon turned out to be a piece of London silver, dating from 1836 (the final year of the reign of William IV) and a product of the workshop owned by Mary Gawner- who inherited the business from her deceased husband and eventually passed it on to her own daughter, another Mary. The second Mary's husband worked in the business- and there may have been apprentices. Unfortunately the system doesn't stretch as far as to identify the individual maker
Helen has an old silver spoon and I offered to read the hallmarks for her.
'Tain't difficult. You need to know how the system works (which you can learn in a minute or two) and have a book or website to hand which explains the symbols.
Here's a typical set of marks. (Not Helen's)
From left to right they are:
1. The maker's initials. Stephen Smith
2, The lion passant which tells us that this is English sterling silver. (Scotland has a thistle, Ireland has a harp)
3. The leopard mask which tells us the silver was assayed in London. Other cities with assay offices have their own symbols, for instance Birmingham's is an anchor.
4. A letter that gives us the year 1871. As the years scroll past so does the alphabet- and when we reach Z we return to A, but in a different typeface.
5. The monarch's head which is something to do with tax but also serves to inform us that (in this case) the piece is Victorian.
Incidentally Helen's spoon turned out to be a piece of London silver, dating from 1836 (the final year of the reign of William IV) and a product of the workshop owned by Mary Gawner- who inherited the business from her deceased husband and eventually passed it on to her own daughter, another Mary. The second Mary's husband worked in the business- and there may have been apprentices. Unfortunately the system doesn't stretch as far as to identify the individual maker
