I hope everyone is keeping well. With home schooling and lockdown, I am teaching my children about silver hall marks. We’ve managed to date a few things, but struggle with the makers marks.
I’m looking for help with these, which I think are silver salts. They are a set of four. Three of them have barely legible marks on the base rim and one does not have anything visible.
This is what I think I have established so far:
English silver
London pre 1822 (leopard with crown)
letter g. So if 1822 or pre, I see that this could be 1822, 1782, 1742 with that style of g. I’ve been guessing as 1822.
no visible maker’s mark
But I am not 100% on which style of g this matches for date.
Can anyone help with dating these?
Also, if you have any comments as to the style, design, use of these I would be interested to know. On the inside rim of one, there seems to be an 8, but this might be coincidental (shown in photo). We have rarely used them, though I recall my parents for a family Sunday roast using them with salt, pepper and mustard on the table. We do not use them and would look to sell if they are deemed nice. But without date and more information it would be hard to add a description to something like eBay.
As a separate question, where is a good resource for looking up makers marks on other bits of tableware?
These are salts and the assay date is 1782. A 1742 “g” would have notch in the top of the punch and 1822 would have an uncrowned leopard’s head. The uncrowned leopard’s head was introduced during 1821/22 while the date letter was “f”. In addition there is no duty mark so they must be earlier than 1 Dec 1784.
For makers’ marks and British hallmarks in general you could take a look at my site: www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk.
Thank you Phil for that clarity. That really helps. I’ve been able to find some identical pairs online using that date as a search. I’m guessing that knowing the maker significantly affects value?? Is there anything else on these I can find to give a clue? It’s frustrating that the hallmarks were not in a straight line! Looking online, prices for a pair looking very similar range from £300 - £825. But they usually state the maker. Can anyone give an insight how to value these, or what a sensible reserve would be for auction?
Knowing the maker always helps but at least you have an accurate date so I don’t think there will be much reduction in value. In addition you have some nice glass liners so that’s a definite plus point, even if they do have some minor chips. If you are looking online for values make sure that you are looking at the prices at which they sold, not the asking price.
