Daniel & Arter - difficulty dating items

[thomasj]

I have a collection of forks and spoons with marks as shown in the attached image: http://imgur.com/zkl5jYK .
(also an image of design motif: http://imgur.com/5rbyBQx )

I've been able to identify the items (I think) as standard quality silverplate manufactured by Daniel and Arter of Birmingham, UK. D&A apparently operated from 1882 to sometime in the 1930s.The lozenge/diamond markings lead me to believe that this was manufactured (or registered) before 1884 as there is no serialized registration number as used from 1884. So, 1882 or 1883.

The lozenge marks are as follows:

I
4
1 Rd 4
C

The British Registry date codes (http://www.925-1000.com/registry.html) for 1882/83 are:
class
date
parcel Rd Year
month

C=January, so at first glance this appears to be January 4 from some year. However the code legend indicates that the year should be an alpha character: 1882 is "L", 1883 is "K" - yet I have a number: "4".

Have I misinterpreted or misread the marks and the legend/references?
How can I determine the correct year of registration/manufacture?
What does the parcel code refer to?

Thanks for helping to solve this mystery!

[dognose]

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum.

The problem digit is the '4' at 3 o'clock, it is either not a '4' or there has been an error in the marking. Do the other examples all appear the same to you?

Don't be sure of a dating of the the early 1880's, it's possible the designer may not have been in-house and may have registered the design themselves, perhaps years before Daniel & Arter took up the option to use the design.

Trev.

[thomasj]

Hi Trev, and thank you for your reply to my inquiry.

There's definitely some mystery with this mark. The 25-30 pieces they are all marked the same - it's clearly a "4" in the 3 o'clock position. I've been trying to imagine the making of the error: as I understand it, the positions of the mark details changed in 1868. This pattern with maple leaves may have been made to commemorate the 1867 Canadian confederation. So there may have been some confusion in designing the mark at that time, converting from the earlier legend to the later one, duplicating the "4" in error.

From this reference http://www.silvercollection.it/ENGLADANIEL&ARTER.html I find that D&A probably started up only around 1882. Perhaps they bought the option/rights to this pattern at that time and perhaps made further error(s) at that time.

I've uploaded another image of the mark here: http://imgur.com/uG0l3Zc

Thanks again for your reply.