I have a silver hand mirror approximately six inches diameter with marks as shown. I appears to be Edinburgh but I am uncertain whether I have interpreted the date letter correctly as 1893. Can anyone help with the maker’s mark and what is the mark before the assay office mark?
The design looks a lot like the one on this page, no?
[bryandouglas.co.uk/silverware/hand_mirrors/d0001/d0001a.htm]
Hope that link works, and this is helpful!
The hallmark looks more like a London mark to me with the English lion passant and uncrowned leopard 's head. The shape of the punches implies one of the 2 cycles 1896-1925 or 1926-1945. I cannot make out the date letter in your out-of-focus picture but suspect that the maker’s mark might be the WC of William Comyns & Sons.
Thank you for your contribution silvermarkersmarks, My guess that the mark is Edinburgh is to some extent based on our being in Edinburgh and does look like the Edinburgh Sterling mark of the likely period… The photograph is not out of focus on my screen but the mark is not as clear as it may be. The date stamp is almost certainly an M and could, if it is an Edinburgh mark be the letter for 1893.
My point about the lion passant is that this is not used on Scottish Hallmarks so it cannot be Edinburgh. I note that the Edinburgh letter for 1893 is a gothic style lower case m in a circular punch. London used a similar letter in 1927. This would be out of range for a William Comyns mark, but the plain lower case m for 1907 would be OK.
Surely the mark is a lion rampant, sterling mark of the Edinburgh office?
It looks like a lion passant to me and in any case the sterling mark used at Edinburgh prior to 1975 was a thistle - Glasgow used the lion rampant.