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Hi - I'm brand new at silver ware and history... I have had my father's christening bowl for some time and always believed it to be plate. Now I see the lion passant, an anchor and a V in a square so I'm going with sterling, Birmingham and 1920 (which would be about right as it is inscribed to my father from his godfather and dated with dad's birthday (3 January 1921). There is a fourth mark which I haven't been able to decipher. Unfortunately I'm not much of a photographer either so my apologies for the flash rebound on the total item shot and the quality of the other two! However, this is what I've got so far.



The bowl is about 3.5inches high and about 4.75 inches in diameter. It's very light. I'd be very interested in confirmation of place and date and if anyone can work out anything about the other mark that'd be great. I'll try for a better shot of the fourth mark and upload that soon too.
Thanks for your help
Meg

Welcome to the Forum Meg.

Your analysis of the last three marks looks to be correct bearing in mind what you say about the bowl being given for your father's christening in 1920. There is always a bit of a problem with letters such as "v" because they look the same in both upper and lower case. Upper case "V" was used in Birmingham in 1945 and all of that assay office's marks were in very similar shaped punches to the ones used in the previous sequence hence the possible confusion.

We await a clearer image of the first mark to try and determine who put the item to assay.This might also help finally confirm the year of assay because of the known periods sponsors used their marks.

Good luck with the next photography!

Mike