The lack of date letter with this spoon has re-stimulated my interest in this duty change period. I checked all the photos of my own Newcastle spoons, and previously I have had none with that duty mark. From photos of Newcastle marks that I have stored from on line, I found very few showing a “cusped” duty mark. However 3 others are shown together below, though perhaps the leftmost set of marks in the composite can be better seen in the “Finial” article referenced previously in this post.
I note that there are the 3 date letters spanning 1797 and 1799. Do forum members have any other “year” marked “cusped” duty marks around to help with the Newcastle double duty story? Interestingly the 3 marks shown are likely all of “John Langlands II”. Possibly as previously pointed out by Dognose, just indicating the amount of silver items turned out by “Langlands” compared to the other Newcastle silversmiths of that period. With subsequent on line searching I have noted another 1797 “H” with a “John Roberts” mark and a “Thomas Watson” spoon without a date letter.
The “cusped” marks seem to be more frequent than I had perceived. Should there be more examples for the years up to 1804? Are there any incontrovertible examples of non “cusped” marks 1798-1804? I hope none of those non "cusped" can be found because then I may have another factor in dating my Newcastle spoons.
Yours
Fishless
