Makers mark on belt buckle

[lemegeton]

HCan anyone please help me identify the make of this buckle, I am unsure whether it is John Faux or John Foster II or someone else? Any other info would be great. Many thanks


http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv87 ... le1/b1.jpg

[buckler]

Well the assay marks say London 1798/99 and the general style looks Georgian.

But it's a type of buckle I've never seen before for this period - and I've seen a few thousand ! Looks very much like the clasp buckles of the 1880 -1920 period usually refered to in the trade as Nurses Buckles . But I doubt if it's a later alteration

Can you provide a slightly better photo of the marks, and another of the back of the complete buckle please ?

Got me really going , this one.

Certainly not John Faux - he was bankrupt in 1785 and to the best of my knowledge never had any of his work marked with a duty mark. He died in 1798 while working as doorman of Drury Lane Theatre - he certainly was not bucklemaking at that stage of his career. (pun not intended)

[lemegeton]

Hi, thanks for the reply. Please see more pics below. I'm sorry that I cannot get a better pic of the marks, but this is a combination between bad marks and a rubbish camera!!

[lemegeton]

Actually these links may be better as the pics will be bigger!

http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv87 ... 00/BBB.jpg

http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv87 ... 00/EM1.jpg

http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv87 ... 00/EM2.jpg

http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv87 ... r00/b2.jpg

http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv87 ... arks26.jpg

[lemegeton]

Many thanks to Clive for helping identify the makers mark as that of Joseph Fletcher. Shame that the piece has been created from two shoe buckles at a later date, but still something that I will enjoy to look at.

[buckler]

First the good news . The mark is almost certainly that of Joseph Fletcher (Grimwade page 393 under bucklesmakers) He entered two marks as bucklemaker in 1781 and 1783 but other than the addresses given by Grimwade have no further information on him. I've not seen his work elsewhere and this is the first indication that he was still marking buckles in 1798.

Now the bad news .

I'm afraid I think this is a pair of Georgian Shoe Buckles altered around 1900 to a girdle clasp .

I had a suspicion this was the case when I noticed the irregular wear to the sides not making sense , but it's been done so well I was not sure
This buckle looked Georgian, had Georgian marks but was a new form. It certainly got me very excited indeed initially until I noticed the wear anomaly


Cuts made were as shown below to the original buckle frames




The small piece was then reversed and welded internally to the larger outer piece and later clasp bars added

I had seen this done once before but never as well as this . I’m virtually certain this is late Victorian Edwardian recycling of an obsolete item and never intended as a fake in any way - but I'm not sure how Goldsmiths Hall would view it . I do not think it comes under the heading of substantial alteration to the nature of the piece as its still a buckle !