- There's an anomaly regarding the Old English/Hanoverian tip of the handle: when the pieces are laid upright on a table, the fork has an upturned terminus of the handle, whereas the slice has a downturned terminus of the handle, like Old English spoons.
Is this because, in the fashion of the times, the pieces were meant to be laid out on a table with one upright and the other facedown? Or, is it because upturned ends of larger serving implements, such as this slice, would be awkward to handle, so the end was turned downward instead for ease of handling-- despite the fact that the matching fork had the opposite terminus orientation?
- Also, the slice has an odd construction because one would think the modified rat-tail drop that's soldered onto the blade as a means of attachment would be joined underneath the blade, rather than on top, both for aesthetic and practical reasons. The way it's done would cause gravity to work against the solder when lifting a heavy piece of fish. A reference set I found online was made 12 years later by the same firm in a very similar pattern, but the point of attachment is soldered underneath the blade of the slice. Also, the hallmarks on the reference set are on the back of the blade and on the back at the base of the tines, not on the back terminal ends of the handles, where the hallmarks are on mine.
- The reticulation of the 2 pieces in my set is not a matching design, but both pieces in my set have identical hallmarks, even down to the distinctive journeyman's (or tally) mark. What is a possible explanation?
- Additionally, the beading on the handles seems slightly incongruous with the Old English styling.
- The fork has a break in the tracery piercing, which could, of course, have happened in recent times, but the quality of the hand-cut piercing overall is not top notch, which seems slightly at odds with a very heavy set by a premier London maker.
Taken together, the aforementioned concerns make one wonder if the set wasn't reworked from older pieces or salvaged from a damaged set of implements and repurposed, albeit in Victorian times. The seller of my set didn't recognize the British hallmarks and thought the marks were silverplate marks, so this purchase was not a large investment, but it has proved to be and will, no doubt, continue to be immensely interesting and educational.
A further possible point of interest relates to the journeyman's mark. Dognose (Trev.) provided a fascinating link: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=18948&hilit=charlotte
One of the journeymen in the Chawner & Co. shop was found dead (murder/suicide) with his wife and 6 children in 1869, and the article mentions that he had worked there "six or seven years," whereas my set was assayed in 1862, so it is possible he was involved in the production of this set, but it would be close to the outside window of possibility timewise. One wonders if some chemical exposure in the course of silver production caused his ill health that precipitated the tragedy."
The fork hallmarks (below)
The slice hallmarks (below)
