Hi,
The spoon’s mark has many doubts, first the outer frame of Lion is oval and 1784 does not match, the second does not have the city mark, maker’s mark is also different from the record. I think if it was a product from Lyon & Twinam’s fraud case? Thanks!
This looks fine to me. You must remember that published illustrations of hallmarks can be representative only. For each year new sets of punches were produced and for the different sizes required there were bound to be some differences in shape. This oval punch for the lion passant is one of those variations from the norm.
We see the London crowned leopard’s head mark frequently missing from hallmarks from around this time until towards 1820. It was omitted from smaller items as an anti-fraud measure to stop the cutting out of a hallmark and its insertion into a larger sub-standard item which should have had a full set of marks.
I see no problem at all with the maker’s mark of George Smith III.
Phil
