Postby dognose » Sat Jan 05, 2013 8:17 am
Hi Paul,
It would appear from searching online that Walker & Hall may have taken out a Patent on this device, or something similar. Viewing an old auction catalogue from early last year revealed a set of four clips assayed at Sheffield in 1903 by Walker & Hall, that were also marked 51208 and PATENT 33. These clips measured 9.5 cm, I'm not sure how this compares with your example.
It would be interesting to see exactly how W & H described them in their Patent application.
Regards, Trev.