New boy seeking help

British Silver Reading Silver Hallmarks
1

Hi,

I am new to this site. I have long had a latent interest in silver, preferring it to gold and now wish to start collecting by initially identifying a few family pieces. I have started collecting together literature, but have an immediate problem. My grandmother left my mother a pair of heavy soup ladles, believed to be solid silver, but for the life of me I am unable to identify any of the hallmarks. I shall try to get some photos, but to date micro photography defeats me, thus I wonder if you could help by this description.

Five equally sized squares in a neat evenly spaced row. Within the first a plume of 3 feathers. The second what looks like a man paddling a canoe with a high prow. The last three, Gothic ‘D’, ‘&’ and ‘S’.

I do hope that someone might be able to point me in the right direction.

John T

2

Your ladles are electroplate, by Deykin & Sons of Birmingham and probably date to c1890. You can see an example of the mark in this post.

3

Thank you for your time Silver, I did go back through posts on this forum, quite obviously not far enough. It seems then that I shall be collecting Silver Plate, as these spoons are priceless to me. Are there any publications dealing with such obscure marks, or are they just known to experts such as yourself, and Museums?

John T

4

There are a couple of very useful web sites which include a good selection of electroplate marks: 925-1000.com and silvercollection.it.

5

Thanks Silver

John T