John Keith - Banff

[Granmaa]

A Banff teaspoon made by John Keith. Does anyone know what the other two marks are, and can they be used to date the spoon?

Miles


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[MCB]

Hello Miles,
The second mark is pretty far gone but at a guess it probably started off as a capital B for Banff. Richard W Turner's Directory of Scottish Provincial Silversmiths shows many examples of Keith's marks containing the B and a third mark of various capital letters which I guess is how the third one here started off. Turner doesn't however allocate a particular letter to a year of manufacture, simply identifying them all as between 1786-1823.
Regards,
Mike
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[dognose]

Hi,

I wonder if possibly the second mark could be another set of initials?

Besides working in Banff, John Keith was also admitted as a Freeman at Elgin in 1808, it is not thought he made silver there, but probably applied for admission so that he might retail at Elgin, possibly through the outlet of another silversmith.

Trev.
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[Scotprov]

The third mark is often referred to as a pot. Just what the reason was, is unknown.

Richard
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