Miles
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Irish makers SB IM
Irish makers SB IM
An 1818 Dublin teaspoon; who knows these makers?
Miles
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Miles
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Hi Miles,
This is an unusual problem, the records of the Dublin assay office are reputed to be amongst the best kept in the world, but I can find no entry for SB-IM.
The only possible lead I found, is that in the year your spoon was assayed 1818 four silversmiths were granted Freeman of the Dublin Goldsmiths' Company, and coincidentally amongst the four there was SB, Samuel Beere and an IM, James Moore. Jackson's has Beere dying in that same year and I wonder if your mark could be an example of a very short lived partnership? You would still expect the mark to be entered at the Hall, but the reason the mark is entered is so that it can be compared with future items sent for assay, if Beere and Moore entered their mark along with their first batch for assay and then Beere drops dead, would they bother entering the mark ? I know this is far fetched but it is a possible scenario.
Jackson's does have another Samuel Beere example on a 1824 fruit knife, this may be his son.
Regards Trev.
.
This is an unusual problem, the records of the Dublin assay office are reputed to be amongst the best kept in the world, but I can find no entry for SB-IM.
The only possible lead I found, is that in the year your spoon was assayed 1818 four silversmiths were granted Freeman of the Dublin Goldsmiths' Company, and coincidentally amongst the four there was SB, Samuel Beere and an IM, James Moore. Jackson's has Beere dying in that same year and I wonder if your mark could be an example of a very short lived partnership? You would still expect the mark to be entered at the Hall, but the reason the mark is entered is so that it can be compared with future items sent for assay, if Beere and Moore entered their mark along with their first batch for assay and then Beere drops dead, would they bother entering the mark ? I know this is far fetched but it is a possible scenario.
Jackson's does have another Samuel Beere example on a 1824 fruit knife, this may be his son.
Regards Trev.
.
An alternative to Samuel Beere would be Stephen Bergin. James Moore is not known to have partnered Samuel Beere, also the marks I have seen attributed to James Moore have been I.M and J.M with the dot central between the two letters. If the mark on the fruit knife is SB then this could be Stephen Bergin. There is I believe a J Mahoney mark I M but I do not know whether the time is right.
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