S.U - on Bowl, 1780

[silvermakersmarks]

A correspondent has sent me these pictures. I read the hallmark as London 1780. Any ideas or corrections?





Phil

[buckler]

Can you check with your correspondent that the rather blurred punch at the bottom ( and slightly right of centre) is not a duty mark ?
It looks more like a George head than a leopards head, which would shift the date up 40 years to 1820.
Not that it would help us much there seems a conspicuous lack of SU marks in two lobed punches in Grimwade . Perhaps not London ?

[silvermakersmarks]

I think that's about as good as it's going to get. I too pondered about whether that mark was a duty mark or a leopard's head. My feeling is that the slightly flattened portion of the edge of the mark points more to the leopard's head of 1780 than the duty mark of 1820 which should be a complete oval. The problem is that the shape doesn't really match either and the blob in the middle is totally unrecognisable.

Phil