Hallmarked Butter Knife I Can't Identify

PHOTOS REQUIRED - marks + item
elenasdisc

Hallmarked Butter Knife I Can't Identify

Postby elenasdisc » Mon Jul 20, 2009 12:24 pm

Hi, have this butter knife with no words that say or don't say sterling and an unusual (for me) set of hallmarks that start with what appers to be a rooster then initials T & Wand then something that I can't recogize.

Image
.

dragonflywink
co-admin
Posts: 2428
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2005 10:42 am
Location: Orlando, Florida
Contact:

Postby dragonflywink » Mon Jul 20, 2009 12:53 pm

It's a mid-19th century American coin silver piece by Tifft & Whiting.

~Cheryl

http://www.925-1000.com/americansilver__Init_T.html
.

silverport
contributor
Posts: 870
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 7:18 pm
Location: Portugal

Tifft & Whiting cheese knive with blade in silver alloy

Postby silverport » Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:28 pm

Hello

Yours knife is in European cutlery set addition a service knife for cheese e.g. soft cheese; butter server has a blade with circular rounded "point".

In yours case - it's seldom - the blade is in silver too.

In Europe these servers most times have a steel blade - sometimes decorative etched - nickel plated and gilded (but the last production process is made only by clients order). The echted ones most times used for presents - the etching isn't very functional for a server indeed!

In France and German factories who produced for French oriented clients the blades were made from an alloy called "Stahlbronze" (Steel bronze = it wasn't steel but a stiff alloy). These blades were polished as like to be golden.

In my «lift up» as a cutlery collector I've got a spoon with same makers mark but couldn't get any clues - French never! English? American marks I haden't seen. Now I've got solved my more then 20 years old question.

Thank you «dragonflywink» for this solution; and «elenasdisc» for to have placed the question!

Kind regards silverport
.


Return to “Coin Silversmiths ~ American pre-1860”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests