British Silver import/export mark

[rainbowrev]

I am new to Silver collecting and I must say it is facinating, it's like portable archeology.

Ok so here is my question:

I have a brush and mirror set, both have an anchor (Birmingham ?) a lion (Sterling ?) a letter N (year code ?) a Makers mark (WL ? or WGS ?) .

From reading quite a bit of this site's info I think I have British silver, however I see no further markings and I wondered if British silver always had to have an export (?) mark?

If I understand what I am reading there should be 4-5 marks, the location mark, the silver mark, the date mark, the makers mark and a tax(export) mark.

I would also love to know how everyone gets such clear close ups of their silver? I tried my camera but it ends up out of focus. Scanner, but the glare tends to bounce off the silver as well.

Thanks so much for all your help.
p.s. I am the typo queen and I apologize in advance for that.

[byron mac donald]

Hello Rainbow-

What year is your letter "N"?

Regards- Byron

[rainbowrev]

The N looks like 1862 (that is on a brush) and there is a letter L on the matching mirror that looks like 1860. The rest of the marks, Anchor, Lion and makers mark are the same on both.

Deb (rainbowrev)

[paulh]

Hello Rainbow,

You need a camera with a Macro setting to get really good close ups.

Paul.