Can anyone identify the marks on this sugar shaker? I believe one is an Edinburgh lion but the other is a mystery. Also does the top seem like it’s not a match? The marks are on the shaker– the top is unmarked. Thank you!
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You have what appears to be a “married” piece. The caster top with its flame finial and border decoration is very different from the plain silver base on which the marks you show are displayed.
The lion rampart does sort of look like Glasgow marks and the tree, fish, bird and bell mark is also a copy of the Glasgow assay mark.
These may be yet more Hanau or German fake marks.
Doesn’t mean it isn’t silver just didn’t start life in the Gorbals and may not be sterling.
CRWW
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Looking again the top I think it is period, about 1760. If its marks have been erased it will likely be because the 19th century German silversmith who performed “the marriage” deliberately or incidentally removed the assay and makers marks from the shaft of the top filing it down so it fitting his new base. The top is probably .925 silver and may actually be quite useful to someone who buy a base it fits burdened with another “married” top.
We need a dating website for silver casters which have been separated!
CRWW
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Here’s what a base for that top should look like:
This particular one by Jabez and Mince. But similar product by John Delmester and Robert Pearston crop up all the time. It was a sufficiently popular design, first assayed as part of “Warwick Cruet” sets and then popularised by Sam Wood, that nearly 100 years later Hester Bateman used exactly the same design .
CRWW
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For those that don’t have a LiveAuctioneers account, that one hammered for £50 (plus buyer’s premium) in 2021. The current overheated spot price of silver would push that up somewhat today.
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Thank you for the information!
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Thank you. On your excellent photos you can actually see where a reduction tool has been used on a lathe to pare down the shaft to fit into the new base. This work will have obliterated the silver marks which may have been on it.
Incidentally there is equipment which will bring back into plain optical view obliterated punched marks. It is used by lawmen to track auto VIN numbers which have been erased. A good body shop will have one if you get curious.
The beaded trim on your is indeed more pronounced and more crudely tooled and not the rope design.
So I think your is earlier but not by Wood.
CRWW
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Thank you for the information!