a gift from a lady

British Silver What is it?
1

i did a job renovating a home for a lady and when i was complete i pulled her aside and inquired about a teapot she had in a box on the floor.

she was ashamed that in an attempt to clean it she removed some of the silver and it had tarnished… and with a smile asked if i would like it. as she was going to throw it away.

well I’m glad it didn’t find its way to the landfill. :slight_smile:

i don’t know anything about it. nor have i seen anything like it. but it is a beautiful piece of work. and any help in identifying what it is . would be just awesome

pictures:

2

It was made by Elkington & Co of Birmingham and has Elkington’s date code for 1883.

3

thats amazingly old ! holy cow
what marks are which ?
will having it cleaned ruin the value. cause if not
i think I’m going to scrub it up and make a pot of dandelion tea

i have been reading a lot online but there is no info on having stuff restored to original… re- silverd … would this be recommended ?

4

E&Co in the shield is Elkington & Co. Then, just for good measure they’ve repeated E & Co to the left, top and right of the shield. The X below the shield is the date code and the number 5865 is most likely the pattern number. I don’t know what significance the 1A has.

I think you may well find that it’s worth having the teapot re-silvered, but I have no experience of this and cannot make any recommendations. I guess as a first port of call you could try a good quality jewellers - the sort that has antique silver as well as watches and jewellery. They may be able to give you some more information - or maybe somebody reading this would like to contribute.

If you find anything out and/or have it re-silvered I’m sure there are several people here who would be interested in how you get on.

5

“1A” is also stamped in the lid

why are the handles made in 3 pieces?
and why does this one have what looks like small square plates with holes drilled in them and in the handle for a pin or something to hold them together…

6

It’s probably all down to ease of manufacture and assembly. Silver teapots normally have handles with insulating spacers, made of ivory or similar, to prevent the handle getting too hot to hold, silver being a very good heat conductor. Maybe they are using a similar technique, but don’t need the insulation.