Postby buckler » Sun Feb 03, 2013 2:20 pm
There are spoons with a unregistered mark of TE/ GS in the period to 1769.
Although usually attrubuted to a known partnership between Thomas Evans and George Smith III these could relate to a partnership between Thomas Eaton and George Smith II . Thomas Eaton was a cousin of George Smith's wife and his Wood Street address adjoins Huggin Lane the address of George's old master, Samuel Eaton and George' s address subsequently.
As Thomas was two or three years dead before the 1769 spoons were assayed, it seems unlikely unless either George stlll used the old marks, or spoon collectors have misread the date letters. Does anyone have firm evidence of a post 1766 mark of TE/ GS ?
It should be born in mind that George Smith II ( the Huggins Lane bucklemaker) and/or his wife were capable of anything !