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What is this piece? Master Salt?
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 8:16 pm
by jfalat
I need help identifying this item...is is a master salt? Also, I am having trouble finding who made it. I used the hallmark guide and came up with the following: Sterling, London, 1874, and a duty of 1838-1890.



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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:35 am
by JLDoggett
Or it is a trophy cup.
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 6:06 am
by MCB
Hello and welcome to the forum.
Your cup was almost certainly made in Horace Woodward's Birmingham factory, assayed in London in 1874-5 where he had registered a mark in 1870 very like the one photographed. It was probably sold through his showrooms at Holborn Viaduct. Woodward employed artists specifically to design cups.
The slight joining at the base of the two initials is the reason for the lack of absolute certainty. When used here the punch may have been somewhat worn causing a distortion but there were one or two other makers with the initials HT registered at London around this time who might have produced the cup and who used a pellet after the H.
Hope this helps.
Mike
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:09 am
by jfalat
I should have given the measurements for this item. It measures 4 1/4 inches tall and the "cup" is removeable from the twig stand. I looked at horace woodward's mark but it is much more complex than a simple HW...any thoughts? Thank you for your help!!
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:37 am
by 2209patrick
Hello.
The Horace Woodward & Company mark shown on this site was entered in 1893.
In 1866 he entered a simpler HW mark.

Pat.
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 11:13 am
by MCB
Apart from the dimensions and the detachable nature of the cup the photograph shows a shield hence the thought it was a trophy cup! It could now be a salt; if there's a glass liner even more so.
For the stand and cup to have originally been part of a whole both pieces should have the same hallmarks. If not there may have been a marriage.
If the more complex mark you saw for Horace Woodward is the cross shape in the forum's makers menu this was a later registered one for Horace Woodward & Co Ltd.
I still favour Horace Woodward as the mark you show (HW not HT as typed in error previously)
Mike
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:11 pm
by JLDoggett
Mike is using the same deductions as I when he comments on the shield befitting a trophy more than a piece made for the table. Were it made as a table piece, the shield would have been a grape-leaf (left plain for engraving) to be more harmonious with the rest of the cup. If the existing insert is removable it would need to be marked, and those marks should match the ones on the base. Otherwise, it is most likely a replacement. For so ornate a base one could expect an upper section to co-ordinate with it.
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 2:08 pm
by jfalat
The marks on the removeable cup are the same as the marks on the holder. Thank you all for the information!
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