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A conclusion to this awful spoon which seems to have been truncated thus forming the unusable and unlovable monstrosity that I have in my collection today:
Maker- Berthold Muller
Assay town- Chester
Date- 1900

Granmaa

Thanks for that Nigel. Have you had a look at the post on overstriking: http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3549

perhaps you know something on the subject.

Miles

Dear Will, Old English pattern (your design) spoons often had slightly curved handles. A good way of telling if a spoon should have a curve in it, is by lying it on a flat surface and looking at it sideways; if the bowl points slightly upwards (5-15 degrees) then there should be a curve to offset th...

Wasn't there a special bust from 11th October 1804 - 28 May 1805 with a particularly narrow bottom line on the bust (I don't know how else to describe it), one which looks exactly like this one?

If so, we can make quite an accurate dating for a spoon with no date mark!

Miles
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Unfortunately for the spoon collector, date marks for provincial assay towns rarely appeared on small spoons (e.g. tea and mustard) until the early 19th century, and it was only common practice by 1821! I'm afraid Will, that your spoon was assayed in Newcastle, as Waylander said, which is a provinci...

Maria,

More information on the bear. DAB is the mark of David Bowles, a modern silversmith who produces match safes based on Victorian originals.

Miles
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Here is a fairly nice brush which I believe was designed for hats; I could be wrong though. It was assayed in London in 1895 by the maker C.D; this is not Charles Dumenil who is the only London CD maker I know. Does anyone know him? Granmaa http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h200/granmaa/PICT0362.jpg...

Thanks Neruda,
Are they anything special do you know; this spoon doesn't seem too bad.
Miles

Does anyone know a London pair of makers with S.B over I.B as their initials.
It is written in normal roman capitals in a square cartouche. The piece was an 1818 spoon.
Granmaa

The cartouche is very similar to the Cork ship, but I thought it was only used in the 17th century (please correct me if I'm wrong), and the earliest pair of sugar nips I've ever seen (of similar design) is 1730's; notice the lack of shell design hands which I think, as Mike said, came in the 40's o...

Thanks very much again carling.
Miles
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I have here a thimble which has written on it "18 sterling silver". I'd like to know the date and maker if possible.
Granmaa


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Maria,

What a lovely little bear! The date is almost certainly 1990; some hallmark books and websites don't go up to so late a date which is why you had trouble finding it. It's even harder to find a book on modern makers, so I'm afraid I can't tell you who DAB is.

Miles
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Thanks for that Carling.
Miles
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Here is a Dorcas thimble by Charles Horner. He invented this sort of thimble to further protect the finger which was often pricked by needles penetrating the soft silver. To combat this, he sandwiched a layer of steel between two layers of silver. However, because of this steel core, he was prevente...

Scorp, It is not uncommon for Victoria's head to be left out, particularly on small pieces. 1810 is very unlikely; everything about the piece is incongruous with such an early date. I've included two pictures of 1886 hallmarks which I think are pretty similar to yours, especially the bottom one. Als...

That's right.
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The F mark you can see almost certainly stands for Foreign, i.e not made in Britain. This F was used, I think, between 1867 and 1904. Another point that adds weight to this is the fact that I've never seen a maker's marks between the other marks, at least not from this period.

Granmaa
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This is quite a strange piece; it seems a strange thing to wear as a pendant with the hallmarks on the front. Does it open at all? Could we have a look at the back? The arrow ended legs of the M make it look most like 1886 rather than 1911, but the pattern discourages me. It could be Joseph Gloster ...

I read an article in The Finial (spoon collecting magazine) on the subject of an overstriking by Thomas Wallis and Jonathan Hayne on a 1787 spoon, which is 23 years before they had even registered their mark. The article suggested that Thomas Wallis and Jonathan Hayne simply sold second hand wares a...