British silver buckles from 18th century? William Hall?

[antiqueye]

I have these 2 silver buckles, which appear to be very old and British. I think they may be shoe buckles. I have researched the marks as best I could, and so far, I think they're British silver, made in London in the late 18th century, possibly by William Hall. I'm a novice at identifying such things, so I was hoping someone more experienced could give me an opinion on this. I was quite surprised to find they might be that old, but they seem to have a duty mark on them that I think shows George III. I'm attaching some pictures. Only the decorative part is silver. The metal of the back part is clearly steel. There are two marks on each end of the buckles. Each end has a WH in a rectangle, and on one side they have a Lion mark, and on the other end the Duty mark.
http://41.media.tumblr.com/c568504ab7baa2354fb4601576e6f76a/tumblr_njxuvw3nqX1roj8gmo1_1280.jpg
http://40.media.tumblr.com/bb01558f03551442bf19f066878d1208/tumblr_njxuvw3nqX1roj8gmo2_1280.jpg
http://40.media.tumblr.com/26682c1aaec4c2b32bd04cc08cf80f38/tumblr_njxuvw3nqX1roj8gmo3_1280.jpg

(admin photo edit - images too large - link only - see Posting Requirements )

[dognose]

Hi,

I've embedded your images to the correct size:







I note from your previous posts that you are deleting your images when you have got your answer, thus making the topics useless for anyone researching the subject. Please remember that any answers given to questions are not just for the OP, but for anyone interested enough to read them.

Trev.

[antiqueye]

Hi Trev. Thanks for fixing the image size. I was not able to figure out how to do it, as the number of pixels did match what it said was required (1000 pixels).

To clarify, I did not delete images after I got an answer in my previous posts. I stopped paying for hosting for a web site that I no longer needed and could not afford to keep paying for indefinitely. Those images were on that web site, and if they went away as a result of that, I apologize. These images are on a free site, so I see no reason that they would be deleted after I find out some information about them.

If the aim of this forum is to create a permanent database of research that can be used in the future, then may I suggest that having some facility for image hosting that is under the control of the administrators of the forum, seems like an important feature. When images are hosted off-site, anything can happen, as web sites do go away sometimes.

[buckler]

As you correctly surmised these are English shoe buckles dating from between 1785 ( when the Cameo George Head duty mark was introduced) and c1790 (when date letters began to be used in London) . Probably mens .
I'm almost certain they are London and the maker is probably William Harris who registered a mark as a bucklemaker in 1782 at Little Windmill Street.
I think the chapes ( the steel prongs etc ) might have been altered slightly at some point , although it's hard to tell without actually examining them

[antiqueye]

Wow! Thank you! That's very good to know. Thanks for the additional information, also. I couldn't quite believe what I thought I was seeing, because I rarely see anything this old.