Hi
I have a silver spoon that I am struggling to identify the maker of.
The hallmarks are as follows:
The makers stamp starts with an S but I am unsure of the next letter. It could be a H looking at the feet but there appears to be an odd bit near the top left of the second letter. There isn’t a dot between them unless it’s been rubbed away.
Date-wise I wonder if someone could validate my findings as I’m completely new to collecting and would like to be certain I have the date right.
There is no assay mark on the spoon, presumably it’s been completely rubbed away but I think the duty mark, while very worn, is George III. The closest I can get to a George III stamp with that kind of C date mark is 1798 on this London hallmarks PDF:
[url]http://www.antiquestradegazette.com/media/1126367/london%20hallmarks.pdf[/url]
However the bottom of the shape surrounding the C looks different - not as rounded and with one of those pointy bits… or maybe mine is just worn? Also, the lion doesn’t looks the same.
Any other ideas?
Many thanks
Yes, this is London 1798. The punch shapes were not necessarily all the same and illustrations in tables of date letters only tend to show one variant. The bit to the right of the S in the maker’s mark and the current shape of the lion passant can easily be accounted for by over 200 years of wear and polishing. By “assay mark” I assume you mean the town mark - leopard’s head crowned for London. At this time (c1790-c1820) it was quite common for the town mark to be omitted, mainly for London. The maker is almost certainly Solomon Hougham.
Thanks, that’s really helpful. I have found a few SH hallmarks for Solomon Hougham on Google images and can see the shape of the S has the same characteristics as mine.
I was using the term “assay mark” as that’s how I’ve seen a few places describe the town of origin, such as:
[url]http://www.acsilver.co.uk/shop/pc/British-Silver-Hallmarks-d84.htm[/url]
Is that not the correct term, or is it better to refer to them as the town mark?
Also, I have been using [url]http://www.925-1000.com/british_marks.html[/url] and [url]http://www.silvercollection.it/EnglishsilvernameS.html[/url] as a reference for makers marks but neither appear to have Solomon Hougham in.
Do you know of any other good reference sites online (that include SH)?
Thanks
Edit: Actually, silvercollection.it do reference Solomon Hougham… I was typing “Houghman”!!
At the risk of an accusation of hubris, have you seen my site www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk ?
Nothing wrong with being hubristic about such a seminal work. Essential for online reference.
Many thanks for it.
Regards
John
Great, bookmarked your site too. Thanks
