www.925-1000.com

Before I saw your most recent post, my research came up with two possibilities, both of which now look like long shots, at best: Payner & Heroy, Albany, NY (ca. 1813) Phelps & Holland, Northampton, MA (ca. 1827) As I continue in my research, I am amazed at how many hundreds of silversmiths, ...

I have been collecting American silver folding fruit knives for the past year of two. As anyone else following that hobby knows, it can be fairly frustrating because American silversmiths, unlike their British counterparts, were under no obligation to mark their knives to indicate whether they were ...

It would be helpful if you were able to identify the city, state or region in which your 4GM lived. No 100% guarantee that that is where the spoon was made, but it could narrow things down.

Since making the initial posting, I have recently managed to acquire a copy of McGrew's book, fortunately for what is now a fairly reasonable price. It is certainly an original copy: it has an inscription, date and signature of McGrew on its title page. I have also gotten a better idea of why his bo...

Once I started collecting American folding fruit knives, I also started buying books on the subject of American silversmiths and their marks. Examples: Ensko's _American Silversmiths and their Marks_, Green's _Marks of American Silversmiths_, and Karsten's _Silver Folding Fruit Knives. None of these...

(I replied earlier using my mobile phone but the message seems not to have made it to this site. So I'll ask the indulgence of this site's moderator if a duplicate shows up and has to be deleted.) Thanks very much, traintime, for a most informative and helpful response. The Silver Salon Forum site h...

I recently acquired an American coin silver folding fruit knife and need help in identifying maker. The good news is it has makers marks. The bad news is I can't find positive proof of the maker in any of the resources I've turned to. https://www.925-1000.com/pics/Ximg.jpg https://www.925-1000.com/p...

Thanks for your interesting information and book reference. I'll have to check it out. Further research at this end suggests that this "medallion" pattern was popular and presumably uncopyrighted, so many variations were produced by different makers. Here, one silversmith calls it the &quo...

A late to the party observation. Rather than that logo being three XXXes, it might be three different letters overlaying each other. I looked in two of my source books and compared the logo to maker's marks containing M, W, and A. No dice. But perhaps someone who reads this who has access to other (...

If you are a collector of American folding fruit knives, you've almost certainly run across examples of this knife in online sales sites or antique stores. The exasperating thing about them is that they all (at least from what I can tell) bear no markings that can help identify when, where and by wh...

Hi, Eli: I'm still very much in the learner stage as a new collector of folding fruit knives, but here are some observations that might be helpful. * I'm going to venture that the knife markings you show indicate that it was probably made by Albert Coles, one of (along with Gorham, et al) the major ...

While this post is years old, I thought I'd offer some comments for anyone, like me, who wandered into reading this forum in order to gain or exchange information on American folding fruit knives. Tifft & Whiting formed a partnership in the mid-1800s and were respected silversmiths based in Nort...

The original poster may be long gone, but I thought I might make some comments to any late-comers that, like me, wander into this post. This knife does, indeed, appear to be made by Gorham. Like many American silversmiths, Gorham often stamped what are called faux hallmarks--hallmarks which mimic th...

Many, many thanks! Not only for clarifying the meaning of that middle hallmark with the letter "M" (not W!), but also for referring me to what looks like it could be a very useful source for future research. Two questions: 1) since Albert Coles is the silversmith I'm most familiar with, I ...

In my continuing education in 19th century American fruit knives, I'm learning that Albert Coles were known to use a variety of sometimes misleading hallmarks. This recent acquisition has the tell-tale reversed "duty stamp" of Queen Victoria and an image of an eagle (looks more like a sea ...

Thanks for your reply. I'm afraid I don't have a camera that takes extreme close up macros very well, but perhaps the one below is a little clearer. As it turns out, I believe I may have found the maker: Lockwood Brothers, 15 Arundel Street, Sheffield, registered in 1855. https://www.silvermakersmar...

I'm having trouble finding the maker of this silver fruit knife assayed in Sheffield in 1893. The maker's initials appear to be "LG" or possibly "LB," but I can find nowhere in the online directories a likeness. I would also think that the four underscores should be a help in ide...

Thanks for your helpful replies. As someone still in the beginner stage of folding fruit knife collecting, I'm getting the impression that American knives made prior to 1864 or so, and not stamped explicitly "Sterling," (or that are evidently silverplated), can probably be assumed to be 90...

Recently, I picked up a silver fruit knife that, thanks to people on the website who have helped educate me on them, I've been able to identify as made by Gorham in the 1855-1860 period. Unlike the last one I acquired, "Sterling" does not appear on the tang. Does this mean the knife was pr...

I started collecting silver folding fruit knives, both British and American, about a year ago. I quickly learned that, especially in the first half of the nineteenth century, it was quite routine for American silversmiths to use British hallmarks on their wares, including the lion rampant or a Queen...