Postby Aguest » Mon May 01, 2017 2:00 am
It seems in proper order, with a maker's mark and a lion passant (indicates 92.5% purity) and the leopard's head is the city mark for London, and the date mark of "e" is the year date when the piece was received at the assay office [+]
Possibly this is a vanity tray which would have held beauty products and perfume. There are many different types of trays and "salvers," this could have been used for something else [+] The family crest on the center could be researched if you so desired, occasionally you can link the object to a historical person or event [+]
Just from my experience, I haven't found any "fake" British hallmarks, and it would be very difficult to produce an object of this quality nowadays, not that it is impossible because there is a lot of fakery in the Russian Silver market, as well as the Tiffany Silver market, and occasionally you will find a recently punched "STERLING" mark on an old silver plate object (a base-metal object with a thin layer of silver, basically zero silver content) [+]
Maybe keep looking for other objects at the tag sale?
