www.925-1000.com

A quite gorgeous hallmarked silver & enamel shield shaped brooch, quite unusual , not by the actual design but by the degree of enamel, most of this style were left without enamel work and some has enamel work to the compass points of the brooch, This is the first I myself have seen with such enamel work.

The brooch quite clearly is marked IONA AR (Alexander Ritchie), The hallmarks are poorly struck and impossible for you to see properly from images but I can tell you they are Birmingham 1956 (Date letter G).Also marked {WHD} for WH Darby & Sons Ltd.

My question is, I know Ritchie dies in 1941 so what is the story behind still using his mark 15 years after his death? Was this a piece made before his death but not assayed until 1956?

The mark is obviously just a part of the casting and has not been struck on this piece. Since you don't show the assay marks, perhaps they are also cast.

Oops. you do show those marks (but not clearly) and also the sponsor mark, which is not AR.

Darn, I'm used to editing my remarks, but can't figure out how to here. I see you've got it figured out and can't understand why you might believe this to have been made by AR since there is clearly a bona fide sponsor mark to match the assay mark.

I've always been confused about who really followed on from Alexander Ritchie. As I understand it Alexander and his wife, Euphemia (Thomson) died within two days of each other in 1941, Ritchie was in his 80's and prior to his demise handed over his designs and moulds to Hannah McCormick, whose son, Iain, was employed by Ritchie. Hannah then set up the firm 'Highland Home Industries' and continued to produce Ritchie's designs, the work being carried out by Iain McCormick, and two other silversmiths, John Hart and Malachy Gormley.

Around the same time, another company started producing Ritchie's designs. 'Celtic Art Industries' was founded by Hamish Dawson-Bowman. I'm unsure how long these firms continued in business, but John Hart is known to have been in partnership with a James Burns Wallace by the mid 1950's, perhaps CAI was defunct (just guessing) by that time, and the moulds aquired by W.H. Darby & Sons Ltd., but this is just guesswork, as, like I said at the start, I've always been confused about the situation following Ritchie's death and it would be great if someone could post some concrete information regarding this innovative silversmith.

Trev.