For Those with an Interest in the Irish Silver Trade

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SILVER CRADLE PRESENTED TO THE MAYORESS OF BELFAST





SILVER CRADLE

Lady Cowan, wife of Sir Edward Porter Cowan, Mayor of Belfast, has been presented by the members of the Corporation with a Silver Cradle upon the birth of a son during Sir Edward's second year of Mayoralty. The cradle was designed and manufactured by the Goldsmiths' and Silversmiths' Company, of Regent-street, London. Its form, as shown in our engraving, is that of an antique canoe, upheld, fast enough, by a stem in the shape of a bell, which is perhaps to signify "Belfast." The silver plateau beneath, thirty-six inches long, bears two seated figures, Commerce and Industry, supporting the Bell. At the ends are fruit dishes, with a figure standing in the centre of each. The arms of Belfast, and those of the Mayor, are engraved on this handsome piece of plate.

Source: The Illustrated London News - 2nd December 1882

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EDMUND JOHNSON COURT CASE

Dublin


The Judge Says Britain Ought to Pay Bourke's Fare to America

A cable dispatch received last week from Dublin announced that the case of Edward Thomas de Burgh Bourke, of Buffalo, N. Y., charged under an extradition warrant with stealing diamond studs from Edmond Johnson, the Dublin jeweler, came for trial Friday. There were two counts in the indictment, one for larceny, the other for false pretence in issuing checks without funds to meet them. The latter charge was abandoned and the jury threw out the bill for larceny. Judge Andrews directed that Bourke be discharged and said the government ought to pay his expenses back to America, an opinion that was cheered by the spectators.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review - 2nd November 1892

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OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE

A recent decision of the courts in a case tried at Belfast should be of interest to American purchasers of antiques, particularly "old Sheffield plate" or "Sheffield plate."

The prosecutor, acting with the support and of the Cutlers company and the Sheffield Master Silversmiths' association, brought a series of six summonses against a dealer in Belfast, complaining that "he did apply to certain articles a false trade description, namely 'old
Sheffield plate or 'Sheffield plate', contrary to the merchandise act of 1887."

The case establishes the point that the term "old Sheffield plate" or "Sheffield plate" implies vessels made of copper and coated with silver by means of fusion. This process was the precursor of electroplating, and died about seventy years ago. Very little ware is produced in Sheffield by this method today. Fine specimens of genuine Sheffield plate bring fancy prices, and at the trial It was stated that large quantities of both the real and the counterfeit are bought by Americans.

The articles in question were shown to he electro-plate on copper by a process patented about the year 1853. None of the articles was Sheffield plate, Sheffield plated or old Sheffield plate, and did not come from Sheffield. The magistrates considered the offenses clearly proven.

Source: Consular Report - March 1912

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Victor Cohen, a Swiss travelling jeweller, was on Tuesday committed for trial at Dublin on various charges of forgery on the Royal Bank of Ireland. The amount of the forgeries is stated to be about £30,000.

Source: The Cambrian - 1st May 1874

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IRISH BULLION Co.

Dublin


Examples of silver tokens issued by the Irish Bullion Co. around 1804:



'Confidence Augments The Value' - A female seated on a hillock, holding the model of a ship in her hands. In the exergue, within an oval, IB Co.


Two of the above examples of one shilling tokens appear to be hallmarked with the Crowned Harp and Hibernia:



Perhaps this may be the mark registered with the Dublin Assay Office of the Irish Bullion Co.?:


IBCo

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Corporation of Gold and Silversmiths in Ireland - Dublin - 1908

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IRISH FREE STATE TARIFFS - 1932




Source: The Financial Times - 10th October 1932

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An 1897 advertisement from Colonel Philip D. Vigors, a keen antiquarian, requesting information on Irish Church Plate:



Col. Vigors was editor of "The Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead, Ireland".

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An Irish silver moustache spoon by Philip Weekes, assayed at Dublin in 1831 and also struck with the retailer's mark of Jacob of Dublin, measuring 8½" (218mm) in length:
















JACOB/DUBLIN - PW - Dublin - 1831

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CORK CAMERA CLUB PLAQUE - 1944


Cork Camera Club plaque for Open Class, won by J.A. Bell:






J·A·R·Ltd. - Birmingham - 1939

The plaque was manufactured by J.A. Restall Ltd. and assayed at Birmingham in 1939.

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Post-Brexit rules and regulations relating to hallmarking, and in particular to the Republic of Ireland:

As from 1st January 2021, British silversmiths selling into the Republic of Ireland should note that there are no exemption weights and therefore every article will require a Convention Mark before being accepted for sale in the country from the UK.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hallmarking ... b-73284026

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MEDALS OF THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS






These illustrations were published in 1907 from the collection of the Cork antiquarian, Robert Day F.S.A.

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