Tricky to know where to put this item as technically something made in Cork before December 6th 1922 is “British Silver” but this mark, or these marks and this little tray carry a hallmark which if it isn’t anti-British is definitely despite rather than because of the British.
It’s a private mark created by William Egan & Sons, St Patrick St, Cork, Ireland to get around the fact that despite the rule of 1807 saying all Irish silver must be stamped " within the pale" it was impossible to send silver to Dublin because the British has closed all the roads
This tray coming up for sale in the US, is one of 80 items made in Cork between June and September 1922 and stamped with the ship or castles or both.
The first Image reproduced here is from J. Bowen Book, “Cork Silver and Gold: Four Centuries of Craftsmanship” and the second is a reference to the upcoming US auction.
"In 1921 a treaty was signed between Ireland and Britain which brought an end to the War of Independence and established the Irish Free State. This resulted in fighting between those who accepted the treaty and the consequent partition of the island and those who rejected the treaty, demanding an all-island Republic.
"During the period July- September 1922 Cork was in the hands of anti-treaty forces. The roads and rail system to the city were closed down making it impossible for the Egans to send their work to Dublin for assay.
"The manager of the business Barry Egan had three special punches made to confirm assay test of their work. These stamps consisted of a two masted sailing ship facing left, a single castellated tower (usually stamped twice at either side of the ship) and the third punch a version of Egan’s makers mark W.E in an oblong.
The idea to produce their own stamps is said to have come from Doc’ Oliver St John Gogarty. the inspiration for the character Buck Mulligan in Joyce’s Ulysses "
THe marks were trusted but in many ways superfluous as no Cork smith has ever been prosecuted for “cheating the weights”.
The history of " The troubles" will be better to known to many of this blog’s readers better than I so I won’t dwell on it other than to say Egans store was ransacked and the street burned by the Auxiliaries (Not the Black and Tans or the Irish army or even the British Army)
Churchill came up with recruiting these otherwise unemployable WWI soldiers to ‘keep in order by any means’ those not entirely supporting of British rule in Ireland. He did so claiming there was no time to train more police and the Sinn Fein has made him look incompetent.
The burning of Egans’ and much of downtown Cork cost 20 million English pounds then.
Like the Nazi party after the 1938 kristallnacht, the authorities prosecuted the perpetrators because they were irritated by the property damage, but somehow while hundreds took part in theft, rape, murder and arson only six came to trial in Cork and two were correctly found unfit to stand by virtue of mental instability. PTSD, today, shell shock them.
So “British Silver?” Perhaps not really but then so much of provincial British silver from Eire and Scotland is dragooned into assay by the colonial authorities rather than freely submitted in an attempt to self police. Which was the entire collateral point, aside from revenue.
As for the chief perp, Churchill, he went off to America where he eventually lost most of the Jerome money his wife had inherited and wrote a lot of really biased books often about his own ancestors until WWII came along and he found another European leader even madder than him to score off.
The British were so grateful for his efforts they imprisoned his niece Unity who had a thing for Hitler. Her sister, Diane, had dumped the Guinness heir for Oswald Mosely, a Staffordshire squire with an odd taste in dress shirts, They too were provided with free room and board during the war.
As for Egans’ store on St Patricks, the business was sold in 1986 and all that remains of a business that produced a mace for the local University, teaspoons for the locals and this little salver is a cannon buried muzzle down in the sidewalk and a rather fine clock over the doorway of the former premises.
CRWW
