sardine tongs - Francis Stebbings? 3 MARKS CNT I.D PIC ENC

British Silver Reading Silver Hallmarks
1

HELLO EVERYONE,

I HAVE EXHAUSTED EVERY AVENUE WITH THIS ONE AND JUST CANT FIND OUT ANYTHING AT ALL…I DID SEE A SIMILAR ONE AS PART OF MARKS ON A PEICE BY HENRY ATKINS ALSO ANOTHER ITEM BY WOODWARD.

THE MARKS ARE DESCRIBED IN THE ORDER ON TONGS AS FOLLOWS:-

THE FIRST MARK IS EP IN AN OVAL SHAPE
THE SECOND MARK IS A ‘C’ IN A CIRCLE (NOT SURE ON DATE)
THE THIRD MARK IS A CROWN IN A LOZENGE (CANNOT IDENTIFY)
THE FOURTH MARK IS THE ONE PICTURED IN PHOTO (I HAVE HAD TO USE A PHOTO FROM ANOTHER ITEM AS MY CAMERA IS NOT WORKING BUT THIS IS EXACTLY HOW IT LOOKS)
THE FIFTH MARK IS ‘FS’ (THROUGH EXTENSIVE RESEARCH I HAVE FOUND AN EXACT MATCH FOR FRANCIS STEBBINGS) :question: :smiley:

Pls scroll down for new accurate pics…

2

EP indicates that your tongs are electroplate rather than solid silver. I think that the resemblance of the FS stamp to the mark of Francis Stebbings is purely coincidental. However I am not able to identify FS. There are many undocumented electroplaters and this seems to be one of them.

3

Hi there,
Just updating with PIC of real hallmarks
rps20131018_071347_611.jpg
rps20131018_071251_772.jpg

4

Here’s one of the head of tongs[i]

[/i]
rps20131018_071611_727.jpg

5

Please can anybody tell me anything about them.

Kind Regards

Kerry

6

My previous reply stands. However they are sardine tongs, not sugar tongs.

7

Oh right…could you tell me what the other marks are especially the strange shaped one and also a rough idea of the date please?

Best regards

Kerry

8

FS are the manufacturer’s initials, EP means electroplate. Assuming it’s British (and the fact that it says “EP” implies an origin in an English-speaking country) it must date to sometime before about 1895 when the use of the crown on electroplate was banned as being potentially confusing with Sheffield silver hallmarks.

9

Thanks for your reply it is very informative…I’ve exhausted every avenue to find out what the mark between the crown and the FS symbolises so if anyone out there has any idea it would be such a help as parhaps i can date it back to which family member it originated from as it has been in the family for so long it would be lovely to know about it…especially the mark questioned above.

Best regards

Kerry

10

P.s sorry for the trouble I know this is a silver collector’s site so thank you again for your time