Help with hallmark on sports trophy

[Blyth Spirit]

Hi

I have recently found a long lost 1970's football trophy my football team won in 1978 and I'm trying to find who made it and when it was made and would appreciate any help.

The trophy is the Debenhams Cup and was first played for in 1977, Chester City won it, then again in 1978 when my team Blyth Spartans won it.
It was never played for again after 1978 so we held the trophy until 1983 when it was returned to Debenhams.

I recently found it in their head office archive and they have kindly given it back to my team to keep.

Can anyone help identify the trophy makers from the marks shown, I've tried and only got as far a it being 925 silver (the lion).

Debenhams had no info on its maker so would appreciate any help.

[dognose]

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum and thanks for sharing this piece of football history with us.

The cup will have had previous history prior to becoming Debenhams Cup. It was made in Sheffield and assayed there in 1930, the makers being Atkin Brothers, the 'HA' standing for Harry Atkin.

The marks shown are the secondary set (from the lid?), the full set, marked on the cup itself, would contain the Sheffield town mark. That is, of course, if the lid is original to the cup.

Check the cup itself for other marks.

It would be good to see an image of the whole piece.

Trev.

[Blyth Spirit]

Thanks for that Trevor

Appreciate the information, I'll check the trophy itself tonight and post the other marks.

If your interested this is the story of the Debenhams Cup -


https://blythspirit.wordpress.com/2012/ ... holders-2/


The story of how I came to find it after all these years is quite remarkable.

I'll post it once it finished

[Blyth Spirit]

Trev

The hallmarks on the trophy itself are -

[Blyth Spirit]

This is the rather fine solid silver trophy -

[dognose]

Hi,

Thanks for posting the extra images. Yes, the marks on the cup and cover match up and as are they should be, 'H.A' - Atkin Brothers, 'Crown', the mark of the Sheffield Assay Office, 'Lion Passant' indicating 925/1000 Sterling silver, and 'n' the Sheffield year letter for 1930.

Presentations of trophies are very often photographed, perhaps one day the origin of the cup in the 1930's hopefully may come to light to complete the history of the piece. Are there any signs of an erased earlier engraving?

Trev.

[Blyth Spirit]

Hi Trev

There are not other markings of any kind.

Nothing at all that would suggest a previous engraving, its in remarkable good condition considering it lay in a storage cupboard at Debenhams head office for 35 years.

I do know the engraving of the words 'The Debenhams Cup' was added after they sent out images for clubs to use on on the likes of their there match day programmes etc.
All images used in 1977 and a year later in 78 show the cup without its engraving and they are completely different images.


Would love to find its original use and even an earlier image of it before it became a football trophy but with no one at Debenhams having a clue I suspect they are lost to the mists of time.