A Strange Birmingham Maker - or is he ?

[buckler]

I've had this buckle for years now and it's still a mystery to me.



From the style it's c1770 and English



Marks appear to be YW or TW , Lion Passant and a Birmingham Anchor .

I originally thought it could an unrecorded early mark of Thomas Willmore, a Birmingham bucklemaker. If the first letter is a Y it was perhaps used to denote Th for Thomas, as Ye was used for The. However Birmingham Assay Office have no record of such a mark and Birmingham almost invariably used dateletters right from the start in 1773. Also Birmingham have reservations over the Lion Passant being a Birmingham punch - although they are the first to admit they do not know all their punches from the early period.

So does anyone have any clues please ? I am assured it is not Cape and it seems as English as fish and chips !

[Granmaa]

Didn't Willmore & Alston use T.W as their mark befor Thomas Willmore registered on his own?

Miles

[buckler]

Yes - Willmore and Alston registered in late 1773 wheeas Thomas Willmore's sole mark was 1785 - when the duty mark was in force. So Thomas Willmore not really a contender - unless he marked some on a separate account.
The plot thickens.
Yeth !

[silverly]

Probably not a bit of help, but there is a Thomas Wheeler listed as a buckle maker at Coleshill-Street, Birmingham, Warwickshire in 1767.

Listed in Sketchley's Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Walsall Directory. Third edn., 1767, SKETCHLEY, James. Birmingham Printed by & for J. Sketchley