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Hello All. I'm wondering why these forks only have 2 marks. I found an A dot L maker's mark on silvermakersmarks site in London section, 1820, unlisted, but I'm not sure if this is the same.
My second question is if there was a third tong that was removed or not. It doesn't look to me as if there was, but perhaps someone can better tell.
Thank you in advance.

Hi,
Two prong serving fork. The missing city mark was not uncommon for London,especially for flatware and small items.
Regards.

I cannot help with the maker's mark. With no King's Head duty mark the fork must be prior to 1784. Perhaps a maker in a lost register. Unusual to be marked above the tines rather than on the stem.

You write of forks in the plural. Is this one of a set? And what size is the fork? Looks quite small. Possibly some sort of sweetmeat fork rather than a serving fork. In any event, unusual for English silver of the period.

A quick afterthought. Could it be an altered spoon? There is a little notch between the tines that intrudes on the pattern suggesting that something has happened there.

Hi,

Regarding the unusual positioning of the marks. Between about 1770 and 1780 Goldsmiths Hall performed several experiments on hallmark positioning. An article was published in 'The Finial' (Vol.14/06) by Anthony Dove, in it he illustrates a four tined fork by Thomas Heming c.1770 struck with only a Lion Passant along side the maker's mark placed at the base of the tines at the rear, and another example of similar marking on a George Smith fork c. 1775. These experiments were probably to prevent damage to the decoration that was becoming more and more popular on flatware.

Trev.

An example of Goldsmiths Hall experimental marking on an Old English Bead tablespoon.
Two marks only, Lion Passant and maker's mark:

X

A similar example of experimental marking, this time from the Dublin Assay Office:

X

The trend towards more decorated stems on flatware caused marking problems before the marks were moved further along the stem.

X

Trev.

Hi,
Yes, traces of filing and interrupted pattern.
Suspicious, anyway.

Thank you for all your responses and great info. as always.