Understanding the format of the Lion Passant has been very largely ignored by the silver community as until recently all the emphasis has been on the larger, fully hallmarked items. Complete with town mark and dateletter. Easy unless you are spoon collector where you get most of the information but all squashed up
But for those of us who collect all the other small pre 1800 items, where a dateletter is seldom seen until the 1790's and a town mark even more of a rarity, a knowlege of the Lion Passant is a vital skill.
The London Lion Passant is fully explained and illustrated in Jackson and the other marks books. Less so for the provincial offices.
Basically there are three diagnostic elements
(a) The outline of the punch -the cartouche
(b) Which way the Lion faces- Passant Guardant (facing towards you ) or Passant (facing to his front/ your left)
The London Lion was Passant Guardant until 1821, other offices varied.
(c) The actual shape of the Lion (this is the very tricky bit - and I'm only now beginning to appreciate how tricky )
The first two are easy to master.
If you look closely at Jackson you should be able to identify each of the following Lions Passant in the chronology below.
1544 to 1545. Square Punch, Lion is Crowned,
1545 to 1548 Conformable Punch. Lion is Crowned
1548 to 1550 Conformable Punch. Lion is less Crowned
1550 to 1557 Rectangular Punch of assorted forms, Lion uncrowned from now on (or so we all thought)
1537 to 1538 Irregular punch, but rectangular on the left and bottom
1558 to 1604 Assorted Conformable Punches
1604 to 1606 Less Conformable Punch
1606 to 1679 Assorted Conformable Punches
All above are per Jackson - I believe there are some variants
I do not see any of these in my price range !
1679 to 1680 Conformable Punch or Rounded Topped Rectangular Punch
1680 to 1697 Assorted Rectangular Punches
1697 to 1720 GOLD only- Assorted Rectangular Punches
1720 to 1740 Assorted Rectangular Punches. Lion very often thin and scraggy
1739 to 1756 The most useful lion of all - The side indented lion with the two or three cusped bottom. I refer to this as the "Cottage Loaf Lion " as it does vaguely resemble a loaf. If you see this on a piece of silver its almost certainly London of this period. But NEWCASTLE also used a similar one at roughly the same period. As far as I can tell their Lion had a top indent to distinquish it from London's and they started and discontinued using it later than London. Forum enquiries have failed to produce any response to this problem.
1756 - 1784 The Punch becomes the familar ogive bottomed , cut top cornered one. I refer to this as the "pointed bottom Lion" but some more direct members of the silver trade refer to it as the "base nippled Lion "
1784 to 1785. Lion remains the same but we get the second great dating mark , the Incuse George
.
1785 to 1789 Same Lion, Cameo George.
1790 - c1796 Same Lion,Same George. Date letters on small item begin to be punched
c1797 Same Lion , Same George . Top indents to punch begin to get bigger.
1821 Third great marker . Lion becomes Passant , not passant guardant
I lose interest !!!
Other bits of Lion Law
The Exeter Lion at the late end of the 18th century is usually referred to as the "letter box Lion" He is a long low very rectangular punch.
More work needs to be done on the Chester and Newcastle Lions
Other Q.I. facts.
Both Birmingham and Sheffield were very careful to date letter virtually all articles , including buckles , right from their inception in 1773. I suspect this was as London was watching them like hawks to make any mistakes! Certainly the first datelettered buckles I've seem have been Birmingham.
If you have got this far without falling asleep, you can appreciate that a late 17th century crowned lion passant guardant is a rare beast indeed.
c
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Notes on the Lions Passant
That's a wonderful observation - still true after a century.
One Lion not mentioned above is a small punch that appears on some small wares ,especially tongs of London around 1792 -1794. It has an oval cartouche, with no cut corners or nipple. Exeter has a similar one I believe.
Another odd one, the "Garfield lion" , is shown on the second post at
http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17443" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Personally I think this is a bucklemakers own home-made punch, as it only seems to be associated with one man
.
One Lion not mentioned above is a small punch that appears on some small wares ,especially tongs of London around 1792 -1794. It has an oval cartouche, with no cut corners or nipple. Exeter has a similar one I believe.
Another odd one, the "Garfield lion" , is shown on the second post at
http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17443" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Personally I think this is a bucklemakers own home-made punch, as it only seems to be associated with one man
.