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B C Hoff backstamped spoon

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 12:13 am
by Windsor
I have a spoon with three marks I think are pseudo marks that look like Joseph Seymour hallmarks. Also has B.C. HOFF that I have read may be a backstamp. Only other mark on the back is a small triangle on the shoulder of the spoon. Believe the spoon is coin silver. Did Hoff stamp this to make it appear more valuable? Was this a common practice?
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Re: B C Hoff backstamped spoon

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 1:32 am
by silverly
Welcome to the forum. I'd say Benjamin Cambell Hoff a mid nineteenth New York State jeweler who was in business in Auburn and Syracuse was the retailer of this spoon.

Re: B C Hoff backstamped spoon

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 3:46 pm
by silverly
Windsor wrote:.... Did Hoff stamp this to make it appear more valuable? Was this a common practice?
I think his stamp on the back of this spoon was simply a retailers mark.

Re: B C Hoff backstamped spoon

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 4:55 pm
by Traintime
Was the maker here definitively solved as a Seymour mark? Or could this be a variant mark for Charles C. Shaver in Utica, also close to this retailer's location. Anyone know?

Re: B C Hoff backstamped spoon

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 5:12 pm
by Traintime
Looks like the maker was correctly identified as Seymour: http://www.925-1000.com/americansilver_S3.html
(Sorry, an old Rainwater sample mark threw me..pays to re-check updated info.)