“TRUMPET AND BANNER” FIGURAL TRADE MARK
EP is short for Electro Plated.
6945/1 - pattern/model number.
F - date letter, 1973 Sheffield Date Letters or G Sheffield Dates - G but it does not make any sense…
Whole item photo, please.
The cites are for the date letters for sterling from the Sheffield assay office. This tray is electroplate, so the G is something internal to James Dixon & Sons. That firm had no date lettering system, so it probably refers to something like a production run.
Almost no silver present at all.
1 Like
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1774469399/smart-art-deco-drinks-cocktail-tray-by
Jeff, so what’s the date?
There’s no way to tell. To repeat, this is not hallmarked sterling, so there’s no date lettering system in use.
So why did the creator include a letter designating the year?
Same pattern.
Jeff, I don’t want to be pushy, but I like to pursue a topic until the end, i.e. solving the puzzle.
The maker did not include a letter designating the year. As with a lot of plate, the numbering and lettering is invariably something the maker used to identify model numbers, production run numbers, perhaps even the retailer for whom the piece was destined. The G is simply not a date letter, no matter how much you want it to be.
Only hallmarked sterling has true date letters!
The only exception is Elkington, which did stick to their own date lettering system for electroplate for many years. It’s reasonably reliable. But it was purely their own invention.
1 Like
Jeff, so explain to me why the creator placed distinctive and somewhat assigned letters indicating the year of creation of items made only of silver on silver plated items?
“Only hallmarked sterling has true date letters!” Yeah, I know that. 
The maker did no such thing. Dixon put a letter marking on a piece they created. It might be almost anything - part of a model number, something that indicates which of Dixon’s workshops it came from, something that indicates which retailer it’s going to. But it’s simply not a date letter. Sorry, but it just isn’t. It’s just a G.
So be it… –-—___
Read above. ––___—
It cannot be 1973 as it was given to my great grandad in 1956, though.