Strange salt cellars marking. British ?

[dinio]

Hello,
I have recently received two tripod salt cellars which are of good quality but I cannot identify their origin, nor their age.
Each weighs 65 g (2 troy ounces).

Here are the salt cellars:


Each is marked on the bottom with 7 marks like in the picture below. Most evident is the maker's name : 'BAILEY & Co.' Then there is the number 1 in the middle. Then there are 2 Lion passant marks of unusual big size.
Finally there are 3 smaller marks which looks like normal british hallmarks, but with slight differences with what I am used to see :
- the lion seems to be walking instead of lifting its paw
- the date letter (S) is within an horizontal ellips
- the assay mark is unknown to me and within a strange shield.

Here is the set of marks:


and here a closeup on the lion passant mark and the hallmarks:




Can someone help in identifying the origin and age of these salt cellars ?

I post in the british thread because these marks looks british to me. But i am not sure of this. Perhaps they are from some other part of the Commonwealth or the british colonies ?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dinio
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[admin]

Hi Dinio,
Well, an ex-colony anyway, they are from Philadelphia. see -> American Marks 1
for the bare essentials on Bailey & Co.

For a long while it was thought that the "lion S shield" was the mark of George Sharp, a very good smith who contracted to Bailey. Albert Soeffing, a silver researcher and writer, discovered in the 1990s, that it was used by Bailey to denote the use of ""English Sterling" rather than coin silver. Bailey began using the mark c.1855

Regards, Tom
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