www.925-1000.com

I understand this to be a snuffer tray with a London assay mark and date letter of 1753. On the reverse underside I see what appear to be a sterling mark as well as a maker’s mark, which unfortunately, appears slightly damaged. It looks like the maker’s mark had a shield-like outside design. Also curious to be is the engraved “8 0” which I assume reflects the weight of the piece, which is about 8 ozt. There is also a series of faintly inscribed numbers that I assume correspond to someone’s insurance code, as after this code is inscribed £15.

Admittedly I am a novice, but something about the way the piece and the marks look together just doesn’t feel right. I thought that perhaps it was silver plate, but given the lion passant, it should be sterling.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated – many thanks.

The hallmarks look fine to me. Although the maker's mark is unfortunately damaged it shouldn't be impossible to find a match. The last letter is probably script I (or J; might even be T) and the shield shape is also peculiar so if someone has time and patience to go through London makers' mark list it's possible to find the maker. https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Makers/London.html

The style seems to be appropriate for a 1753 item (you can use Google search for "rococo snuffer tray" to find similar items) and it doesn't appear to be plated because then you would expect to find for example some copper bleeding. And the hallmarks and how they are worn also look like one would expect. So I would say it's a genuine 18th century silver item.

The maker's mark (or what is left of it) has some similarity with Grimwade's "Unregistered" WT mark number 3907, an unidentified maker. Given the 1753 date it is very likely that it would have been in one of the notorious missing registers.

Phil

Could it be Simon Jouet? His mark looks quite like the the mark here; especially the shape of the shield.

Yes, it could definitely be Simon Jouet's 1748 mark:


Phil

I found a drawing of Simon Jouet's mark on this book and it shows the rather distict shape of the mark: https://archive.org/details/oldlondonsi ... /page/n348 It's almost like a cloud (I don't know if there's a proper term for it) and the shape is very similar to the one on the tray. Additionally Google search found some pictures of items sold by antique dealers/auctions where the hallmark can be seen even better. Simon Jouet has apparently made candlesticks so a snuffer tray would fit in the picture too.

Thank you all very much for the help. I went through the London makers’ mark list, and found about 4 candidates (John Harvey, James Morrison, John Payne, Thomas Whipham). Admittedly I have not yet compared against the Grimwade book.

However, looking online at Simon Jouet marks, it seems like he is the best candidate so far.

In particular, I notice the following similarities between the mark on this tray and his mark on a candlestick of his from another website.

Distinctive “in” and “out” marks on the side.

Notch at the top of the mark.

Curve in the visible portion of the J.



Thanks again for your interest and help.