Hi,
I have a pickled onion\shellfish fork with a pearl handle about 6-7 inchs long. but can’t find any references to any of the marks, which are - a plume of feathers or possibly a fleur de lis, then a very strange mark, quite worn, and I can’t tell which way to view it, but viewed from the same way as the PoF, it has a body with two line to the left top, like those of a Vand on the right what looks like a swan neck facing right and a makers mark of an script D then a separate & and then a separate (lowercase ?) h?
Please see the pics attached.
any help will be very much appreciated!
Robert
You may get further and better answers if you do two things: first display the entire item and secondly use the enlarge picture capability so ancient eyes like mine don’t fall out of their sockets trying to read your marks.
Failing that you can look up the electro-platers whose name included a Gothic D followed by an ampersand.
Fourth option is to wait until my colleague Bart finishes with his filial duties. He has far more patience with and time for Victorian silver plate nomenclature than I do and probably younger eyes.
Cheers
CRWW
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Oh and there is one other thing you can do, it requires dish soap and an old toothbrush and possibly some silver dip. Clean the accumulated 100 plus years of gunk out of the trademarks indents you are seeking to identify.
And no, the silver dip, if used correctly, won’t do much damage to your plate – although it may reveal what the dirt hid. It is of far greater threat to you. Thiourean acids are known carcinogenics, so use gloves or wash you hands before doing anything else unless you have a really good lawyer on speed dial at which point your pickle fork might be ironically named.
CRWW
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Hi CRWW,
I’m not familar with the “enlarge picture capability” you mention; is this a function of this website?
Otherwise if you download the pic you would be able to zoom in using a photo viewer App.
Unfortunately the marks are very worn, quite flat, so cleaning won’t help much.
Also, I prefer to use silver foil in hot water and baking soda, which gently lifts off most tarnish (obviously in this case only the metal part could be submerged).
Robert 
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This is an electroplate mark of Deykin & Harrison of Birmingham, identifiable by the inclusion of their “man in a gondola” trademark.
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