Mappin Brothers silver plated? is the sun face mark means for?

[ybcnd]

I got a big lot of Mappin brothers' utensils recently. A few of them have marks "MAPPIN" "BROTHERS" "A or A1" "SUN FACE" which are no doubt silver plated. In contrast, more of them have only marks as photos shown, and also have a "S" mark in distance. As per photo, letters "M" and "B" should be for "Mappin" and "Brothers", I wonder if this very Sun-face indicates silver plated? and what would be S mark for? Thank you for help.

[silvermakersmarks]

The sun-face mark is simply Mappin Brothers' trade mark and doesn't distinguish between plate and solid. The "s" is no doubt some mark specific to the workshop and is highly unlikely to have any particular external significance.

Phil

[dognose]

The 'S' mark, often when applied to plated items, was usually an indicator of 'Sheffield', but in this case, as it was struck so far from the main set of marks, is likely a quality indicator. Mappin Brothers were known to plate their flatware in two qualities, Medium and Extra Strong and it may well be that your mark is referring to the latter.

See also: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=38368

Trev.

[ybcnd]

Thank you very much Phil and Trev.
This sun face mark is the trade mark then. My first thought of S mark was "Sheffield" and second thought it might be an indication of solid silver with content lower than sterling. I do have some very identical pieces, as per photos, clearly marked "A" for silver plating but my questioned one has only this S mark for silver status, as Trev said or no indication at all if the S is for Sheffield.
As said I got a big lot of them, checked and observed that the sun face mark has eyes nose and mouth in S marked pieces but only has eyes in A marked pieces. Is this typical in Mappin ?




And as per photo, the S is in frame of a shield while A is in square frame.