www.925-1000.com

A nice looking piece. Just a relatively trivial further comment. I imagine the monogram is actually in cyrillic script in which case I read it as BC intertwined (i.e. VS or SV if transliterated).

It looks like Sheffield rather than London lions passant in your photos which would tend to confirm separate origins.

Thanks Silverly. It is Heal's references to a John Orme in business in 1743 and 1744 that make me think there were two of the same name. If your references all prove to be for the one person it still leaves the 1743/44 silversmith as a possibility for my IO mark. It would be nice if your research pr...

I guess I'm stating the obvious but I take it that this means there were two contemporaneous John Ormes, the watch chain maker of St Andrew's parish who died in 1742 and the other of St Paul's parish who is presumably the one that Heal records as still being in business in 1743 and 1744. I'm trying ...

Not genuine British marks. Without a photo of the object itself it is difficult to say whether they are outright fakes, colonial pseudo marks or fantasy marks on some historicist item.

I agree that the 1817 marks are incompatible with the style of the frame. I suspect they are fakes rather than transpositions - or they may be transposed fakes. I am really more familiar with earlier silver but what hits me in the eye is that the leopard's head looks quite wrong. Detail of the face ...

I sympathise. I am supposed to be able to speak Russian but avoid doing so or writing in the language because I am so out of practice that I am certain to make mistakes. I have to respect those with the courage to use my native language when it is not their own.

Goldstein

I intervene with some trepidation but, as a native English speaker, I would have to say that your words were at best ambiguous. They carried the same meaning to me as they did to Qrt.S whatever your intention may have been.

I think Dad was referring to the marks on the first photos that started this topic, not the marks with HB in later posts. His excerpt from the Ivanov book doesn't touch on this. I am more persuaded by AG2012 et al about the original object in question but don't claim the expertise for my opinion to ...

I think Trev may have it. I too felt that the second initial could not be a T but had not got as far in exploring the other possibilities (was looking at JDs and not feeling they could be right!).

In the other mark I suspect the 3 is actually a cyrillic Z so transliterated the mark would read 9ZK. 9 is likely to stand for the year (perhaps 1969 or 1979) and ZK would identify the workshop that made the piece, but I don't have any references for specific Soviet makers. One of our Russian expert...

Identifying the maker of an item from its mark is often a matter of looking at the probabilities when hard documentary evidence is lacking. As well as reading the linked topic I have done a bit of searching of my own which leads me to think Mstera Jewellers are the probable makers. Note that I gave ...

I should have added that the term Jeweller is used in Russian with a wider meaning than in English so can be read as silversmith though covering work in base metals as well.

I'm afraid I don't quite agree about the interpretation of ЮММЕТ. There are two parts to the mark which are sometimes separated by the date code. For instance, I have an example with ЮМ4МЕТ where I think the 4 is for 1974, but it could be 1964. The second, МЕТ part will indeed indicate a base metal ...

Looks like 1784 which is too early for Hollinshead.

I started offering comment before I spotted that you had some linked enquiries. I am wondering whether some of the pieces are later decorated but, as I have said in my earlier comment, hollow ware is not really my specialism.

David

Looks like the crowned leopard's head and the lion passant used from 1756 onwards. If there is not even a shadow of a duty mark that would give you 1756 to 1783 as a date range. I am not sufficiently "in" to hollow ware to attempt to date more precisely by the style of the piece. Good luck...

Hello Amena There are several books that are useful for British silver but I only know one covering European spoons as a whole that I think worth recommending: "European Spoons before 1700 " by John Emery. It is out of print so you would need to look for second hand copies and, as you see,...

I think it also worth remembering that Eden entered his sterling mark in 1720. I would expect him to have used it when appropriate thereafter (though of course exceptions can occur).

Now that Trevor points it out I can see the faint bar of the T. Interesting. I still don't recall seeing the mark on spoons and can't suggest an attribution.

I'm afraid I don't recognise the mark. A single initial is unusual. Might the fact that the M is off-centre suggest a thin letter such as I in front of it? However, that takes me no closer to suggesting a name. Sorry!