Matt
Missing town mark
Missing town mark
I take it this is a common sight? No Newcastle town mark on this 70g table spoon. It was mistook for London but I saw that it was a Newcastle piece.
Matt
Matt
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WarrenKundis
- contributor
- Posts: 626
- Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2011 3:20 pm
Re: Missing town mark
Good Day Matt,
Right that IR in oval cartouche appears to be John Robertson of Newcastle. This particular mark has been seen between 1795 - 1797. Upper case G in clipped cartouche is the Newcastle date letter for 1797. From my reading here had assumed that the lack of a city assay office mark took place between the end of the 18th on into the early 19th centuries in London and at least one other city on small objects.
Let's see what our other more knowledgeable members have to say.
Warren
Right that IR in oval cartouche appears to be John Robertson of Newcastle. This particular mark has been seen between 1795 - 1797. Upper case G in clipped cartouche is the Newcastle date letter for 1797. From my reading here had assumed that the lack of a city assay office mark took place between the end of the 18th on into the early 19th centuries in London and at least one other city on small objects.
Let's see what our other more knowledgeable members have to say.
Warren
Re: Missing town mark
Smaller items I would expect and do have examples from Newcastle but this has all the marks except the town mark, usually the leopards head and often the date letter are omitted. Just seemed a little odd to have marks that essentially are the same as a London piece to the less keen-eyed.
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Essexboy Found
- contributor
- Posts: 132
- Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2020 6:17 pm
Re: Missing town mark
Hello, “snap” I think. Some dessert spoons that seem to be marked like the serving spoon that was formally imaged in this post. My spoons have the "IR in oval cartouche" belonging to John Robertson I, with a pellet between the letters. I assume the missing image also had the pellet present.
The date letter is “G” and that was used for 1797 and we can see a cusped / indented "duty mark". We now know this was a “limited use” mark that indicated a silver duty rate change. The duty had changed in July 1797. and prior to the use of this cusped mark, 2 standard duty heads had been struck on items to indicate the change. An example taken from another post is below.
Apart from sporadic findings (I’ve seen 1), the cusped mark ceased to be used part way through 1799 when the duty mark showed the Monarch's head with a concave "bust base". This image does show the Newcastle Guild mark with the 3 castles that has been left "unstamped" on my spoons.
There is more about this Newcastle duty head changing period in the post referenced below
https://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13577.
Fishless
The date letter is “G” and that was used for 1797 and we can see a cusped / indented "duty mark". We now know this was a “limited use” mark that indicated a silver duty rate change. The duty had changed in July 1797. and prior to the use of this cusped mark, 2 standard duty heads had been struck on items to indicate the change. An example taken from another post is below.
Apart from sporadic findings (I’ve seen 1), the cusped mark ceased to be used part way through 1799 when the duty mark showed the Monarch's head with a concave "bust base". This image does show the Newcastle Guild mark with the 3 castles that has been left "unstamped" on my spoons.
There is more about this Newcastle duty head changing period in the post referenced below
https://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13577.
Fishless