JF, thistle, T and ?.......Toddy ladle

[mk209]

This one has me stumped, it’s not hard given the small library of books I have but still nothing found online either.
It’s a toddy ladle with a shell top. Can anybody shed any light on this?





Matt.

[Traintime]

Wild guess. Mark 4 is supposed to imply worn three-tower castle mark for Edinburg. But the cartouche does not look worn as is therefore not right. So, pseudo? But why? A Scottish emigre? A tax dodging retailer in Aberdeen? You got me!

[Traintime]

If the readable marks were in fact true Edinburgh assay, then 1799 would seem to be the date. So who trained George Fenwick (the father) before he began working in 1800?

[Aguest]

The second letter is not an "F" ::::

The second letter is an "E". ::::::

The maker "JE" of Aberdeen Scotland is James Erskine. :::

I think it's James Erskine, although I have not found this specific set of hallmarks, I have found other hallmarks which point towards this direction. ::

[Aguest]

"Maker’s mark only ‘IE’ for James Erskine, Aberdeen c1800. This is a known damaged punch of Erskine’s, with the bottom of the E missing."

Found the above description from a wine ladle attributed to James Erskine

[Traintime]

Here Trev. mentions that James Erskine Aberdeen did send some work to Edinburgh for assay: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=38410&p=104595&hilit=james+erskine#p104595

[Traintime]

More by Trev.-some samples of James Erskine work and marks...including an intact "JE" noted as "E" (second of three samples):
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=31210&p=169062&hilit=james+Erskine#p169062

[Traintime]

No photos left, but another mention of "broken" stamp with alleged attribution to James Erskine: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=50300&p=155010&hilit=James+Erskine#p155010

[Aguest]

The fantastic Erskine article says that Erskine paid "lip service" to the official assay masters, so a small percentage of his pieces would bear official hallmarks, but the vast majority were not assayed and were stamped with pseudo-hallmarks, at least this is how I understand the situation ::::::

Has this particular set of James Erskine hallmarks ever been recorded?

[mk209]

Thanks guys, I have studied this more closely with a 40x magnifying glass snd yes there is a shadow of the bottom part of the E so it does read ‘JE’ not ‘JF’.

James Erskine it seems to be but not seen this set of marks before. A rather naughty set of marks designed to deceive it seems!

Matt.