gorham mark?

[cathym]

I am looking at buying salt and pepper shakers that say Gorham Sterling and a three digit number. But the Gorham mark is not on it. Didn't Gorham always use their mark or did they sometimes just spell out Gorham?
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[2209patrick]

I've got some small Gorham pieces that are stamped like your S/P shakers.
Not sure when they started doing that.
Probably sometime during the second half of the 20th century.

Pat.
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[cathym]

Thanks Pat. What confuses me is that the person selling this Gorham salt and pepper shaker is trying to say it is 100 years old. There is really no way to date it as the mark is missing and there is no date mark. I wonder if they could have left the mark off these smaller pieces even earlier? I would be curious to know if anyone has older pieces. Also, I wonder when they started making salt and pepper shakers because it used to be that only salt celars were used I believe.
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[admin]

Hi,
I've had Gorham salt & peppers with date letters from the 1880's, and pepper shakers certainly go back earlier.
Remember that the marks are only part of dating a piece. A look and a touch provide plenty of other data to go by.
Regards, Tom
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