Just purchased a trophy with these hallmarks.
Can members please help to ascertain if the M&C mark belongs to Mitchell and Cooper?
Although inscriptions suggest that the trophy was in use during the 1950s, the hallmark dates it to 1911. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Thank you
This M&C is Marks & Cohen of Camden Street, Birmingham. “m” is the date letter for 1911; your dating is correct.
Phil
Thank you for your invaluable input, Phil. Much appreciated.
Just curious, are these silversmiths prolific in their trade? Asking as this is the first M&C hallmark I have come across. Thanks once again.
They must have been fairly prolific; in my entry for them I have a reasonably long list of items on which I have seen their marks. They seem to have been in business during the first 2 decades of the 20th century and don’t appear in the telephone directory after 1923.
Thank you once again, Phil.
Although inscriptions suggest that the trophy was in use during the 1950s, the hallmark dates it to 1911. Please correct me if I am wrong.
In my experience this is not that unusual, I have seen a number of trophies that have been acquired long after manufacture and put to use again. Most examples have been from the decade after WW2
exmpa
Hi Exmpa
Thanks for your input.
This brings me to my next question.
As this trophy was used in Malaya, could it be that it was brought to Malaya preww2 and remained unsold at the shop until it was purchased in the 1950s or produced in 1911 but only shipped to Malaya after ww2. If it is the former then it would have been amazing to have survived the horrendous Japanese Occupation 1942 to 1945 when anything made from precious metals would surely be looted or sold off and melted to secure funds for much needed inflation ravaged food.
Syburi,
I’m afraid that your guess is as good as mine. The ones I have seen in the United Kingdom would generally appear to have been purchased secondhand, either without engraving or may have had it removed. I have seen a large Elkington trophy with a hallmark for 1878 (iirc) which was bought by subscription in 1948 and remains in use to this day. If yours was a sports trophy, from my limited experience I would guess that it was sourced in the UK and shipped out to Malaya. But as I said, it really is guesswork.
exmpa
Not sure if helpful but I have some M&C engraved (personalised) pieces (g mark, so not sure what year, but I think around 1917), which belonged to relatives who were in Singapore at the time - and prisoners of war there in later years.
g would be 1906, assuming it’s Birmingham as in the picture at the top of this thread.
