Can someone please give some insights as to the age, style and possible maker of this large silver plated coffee pot?
Some details: it has no makers mark, is over 12" tall, copper is the base metal and it has a wooden handle.
Looking at the photos, you can see the beaded bands around the various rims have been individually applied and although worn, no copper shows through (are they silver bands?). And the spout is clearly made in 2 halves, with rolled edges.
Do any of these details indicate an age? Could it be Old Sheffield (the rolled silver edges)? What wood did they use for handles?
And when did it become a legal requirement for manufacturers in Britain to include a makers mark (I don’t really understand why a producer of quality work wouldn’t want to add their name to the piece)??
It looks like a modern electroplated reproduction to me. Had it been OSP (Old Sheffield Plate) it would very near certainly have had some indication of the maker - and would probably not have been in such good condition.
It has never been a British legal requirement to have a manufacturer’s name or mark on anything but items being sent for hallmarking.
Thanks for your insights, Phil. Is the addition of the silver beaded bands and the roled edges of the spout something you’d expect in a 20thC reproduction or is it still sometime in the 19thC… just later than the Old Sheffield period?
I would expect a reproduction to be true to the original. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a very good reproduction. The handle looks too clean and crisp to have seen any reasonable amount of use. Of course it might just have been kept in a cupboard…
