help me locationg these spoons

[philip]

Hi There,

Can you help me locating these silver marks?

Can you tell me why there is a lion on the spoons?

Does anyone know what the WE/WF/WC mark stands for?



Thank you very much

Philip

[philip]

Hi there,

Philip here again, I also have some spoons with these marks:



The difference is the the shield with crown and the WC is not in the mark.

Any info on this?

Thanks a lot!!

[StewartMcI]

The first is made by the partnership of William Eley, William Fearn and William Chawner and dates from London 1813 and the second by the partnership of the first two of these.

The engraved lion is the armorial crest of the original noble owner.

Stewart

[philip]

Thank you Stewart.

How can you tell it is 1813? and are they both made in 1813? Did William Chawner join the two later on?

And can you tell me what the mark with the shield and crown means?

Kind regards,

Philip

[StewartMcI]

The combination of marks, including the "S" dates the first to 1813 - actually 1813-1814. Similarly on the second the "U" indicates 1815.

William Eley and William Fearn registered a mark in partnership on the 4th of January 1797, and their first in partnership with William Chawner on the 18th of April 1808. By October 1814 Chawner had left the partnership, and in February of the next year he registered his own mark.

The other mark is not an official English hallmark. It is common in this period to have an informal mark called a journeyman's mark to indicate the actual craftsman who fashioned the piece, probably for what we would call internal accounting and quality control in the firm. This mark, however, looks a bit complex for this purpose.

Stewart

[dognose]

The journeyman's mark is probably the small mark between the 'WE-WF' and the crowned shield marks. The crowned shield mark is likely an import mark.

Belgium perhaps?

Trev.