Help on spoon mark ID

[rejd]

Hi all. I am trying to figure out the date and maker for this spoon I have. It appears to be Solomon Houghman (reg 1793) but the date letter appears to be 1737? It has the sterling mark but no city mark. Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[silvermakersmarks]

Perfectly correct with Solomon Hougham. The date is 1817. We can tell that it must be after 1784 because of the duty mark and that it's London by the shape of the lion passant punch. It was very common at that period (c1795-c1820) to omit the assay office mark on smaller items on silver, particularly for London, but also Exeter and Newcastle. We suspect that it was an anti-fraud measure to prevent an unscrupulous silversmith from cutting the full hallmark from a spoon and inserting it into a much larger piece of sub-standard silver in the form of a salver, cup, etc. which would have had the town mark included. Whether this was justified who knows?

Phil

[rejd]

Thanks so much for the quick reply. Much appreciated.