Shell Bowl Onslow Soup Ladle

[SilverSurfer]

Just dropping in for a moment. Have been off in another venue chasing unicorns, but recently came across the item below, a kind of a silver grail of mine for some time. The king of sterling flatware is arguably the large soup or punch ladle, and while I have a few others, I've had a hankering for a shell bowl Onslow example, one of which finally came home to roost today. It's not a ca.1760 period piece, alas, but a Victorian remake, hallmarked for Sheffield, 1898-99, Atkin Bros. or Archer Machin & Marsh (the former looks to be a better fit to me per Jackson's). Any votes for one or the other? It's about 11 1/4 inches long, 3 1/2 inch wide bowl, and 6.6 troy ounces in weight, rather sturdily made.



Unlike the originally made examples with cast finial volutes joined to the stem by a scarf joint, this one evidences no solder joint at all, indicating the finial was hand formed as an original part of the handle. I also notice that a jeweler or smith finely scratched A1 and RX-1 on the finial underside. Are these meaningful or just idiosyncratic? Anyway, I thought I'd share this one with any who might be interested, a long term itch I finally got to scratch!

SS

[silvermakersmarks]

Definitely Atkin Brothers. Archer, Machin & Marsh (mark registered 1854) was a relatively short-lived partnership. They may still have been in existence in 1857 as Henry Archer is listed in a Trades Directory of that year as a [silver] chaser at the address quoted in the registration. There is certainly no evidence for the business in 1898.

Scratch marks of the sort you describe (but don't show) are not normally meaningful; they may just be inventory marks made by or on behalf of a previous owner.

Phil

[SilverSurfer]

Thanks for the clarification. Though a remake and not a period piece, it has a certain charm for me, one of my favorite ladles. Thanks again, take care.