I need help dating this Gorham fork. It has a right facing lion passant, an anchor, a Gothic “G”, “STERLING” underneath, and an “M” inside a diamond. I am guessing that the “M” inside the diamond indicates a manufacture date of 1880. Is that correct?
Also, what can you tell me of the design? It appears to be a boar on top of the shoulders of a bearded man.
Thanks for your help.
Hi there GRP and thanks for joining us. Gorham did not apply date marks to its flatware, only holloware. The “M” stands for the weight of the flatware, or Medium vs. “H” for Heavy, “EH” for Extra Heavy, and “T” for Table. The regular weight was not marked. It is difficult for me to make out the details of the mark in your picture but it appears to be a Gorham post-1900 mark.
As to the name of the pattern, Gorham made a zillion patterns and yours is not one I recoginze off the top of my head. You will find it at www.replacements.com if you look under “silver” and “Gorham”, then flip through the pictures of the patterns, and the pattern names may also give you a clue to shortcut the process.
Regards,
Uncle Vic