Help with fork ID. Possibly Solomon Royes?

[Strangenoises]

Hey, I've got this fork here, and I think my id is correct of it being Sterling, London, 1821, (I don't know who the person is), and SR for Solomon Royes.
I think the cursive F at the top is just the mark of who ever owned the fork?

The only reason I doubt my ID is because my friend didn't think it was as old as 1821 because of the arrow detail on the handle of the fork, but I saw this post: http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic ... yes#p88071, which has the same detail on the handle, so i'd wager that it's accurate.
Also, does anyone know what the asterisk/star under SR is?
Thanks

[SteveDWollongong]

Hi Strangenoises and welcome to the forum,

Your research is spot on and so your attribution to Solomon Royes, London assayed early 1821(as there were changes to the marks that year) and of course sterling silver are all correct.

The engraved letter is undoubtedly the surname initial of an owner but I'm no expert on fonts to be able to say whether it was the original owner or engraved later by a subsequent one. The style and patina of the engraving makes me think it is probably original to the fork but someone with more knowledge might be able to give you a more definite answer.

In answer to your final question regarding the punched star next to the makers mark (more correctly called a sponsors mark these days) it is what's known as a Journeyman's Mark. Many silversmiths employed staff which comprised of apprentices and journeymen. A journeymen is someone who has completed their apprenticeship and is therefore capable of producing items unsupervised. The journeymans mark was a means in which the employer could keep track/count of the items made by each of his journeymen. There is a very good article on the topic here:

http://www.ascasonline.org/ARTICOLOGIUG195.html

Cheers,
Steve

[Strangenoises]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply Steve

:)