Old Sheffield Plate Cake Stand Unknown Maker
Re: Old Sheffield Plate Cake Stand Unknown Maker
Cleaning up mark 2 would be helpful here. The location of where the stand surfaced might tell a lot as a SHEFFIELD stamp can either be an export/import mark before actual country of origin was required, or it might be part of the larger scam that was carried on by American manufacturers to give false pretense as to the quality and nature of their wares (all covered in entries on this site).
With this we arrive at two distinct possibilities. One is the L.B. Smith company in the United States which used a similar “key-in-shield” pseudo mark on some items. But another is the Henry Wilkinson concern actually based in England, assets of which were aquired by Walker & Hall in the 1890’s. Here is a thread where the concern is a decent explanation of the lineage of firms using the keys mark that end up with Wilkinson: https://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopi ... udo#p32459
Now your keys aren’t an exacting match to any samples I could find so far, but variations of marks are not uncommon. My own gut feeling is that because the SHEFFIELD mark is not just stamped but is actually enclosed in a cartouche, then it could well relate to the Walker & Hall era as some if their wares were marked in this manner. Whether they continued using the keys mark after the buyout on select lines is what must be determined.
Mark 1 is quite interesting. Even though it is similar to some other British pseudo-marks that might be called florals, I think this one may represent propellors and many British firms incorporated marine objects around this era. We see ship depictions added into stamps on China, possibly related to the fact that trade was carried out in the cargo holds of these steamers. So why not add something like this to silverplate marks related to exports?
And here’s a kicker…on the Silvermakers Marks site, one unidentified mark includes the key-in-shield next to three encircled letters of E, G, & S. This could mean Electro-Plated German Silver and we know that similar marks (P.G.S.) were used by at least one British maker. So why not another like Wilkinson? This is still all just conjecture at this point. It might take a long time before enough overlapping mark samples turn up to be able to point a finger at a single suspect.
With this we arrive at two distinct possibilities. One is the L.B. Smith company in the United States which used a similar “key-in-shield” pseudo mark on some items. But another is the Henry Wilkinson concern actually based in England, assets of which were aquired by Walker & Hall in the 1890’s. Here is a thread where the concern is a decent explanation of the lineage of firms using the keys mark that end up with Wilkinson: https://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopi ... udo#p32459
Now your keys aren’t an exacting match to any samples I could find so far, but variations of marks are not uncommon. My own gut feeling is that because the SHEFFIELD mark is not just stamped but is actually enclosed in a cartouche, then it could well relate to the Walker & Hall era as some if their wares were marked in this manner. Whether they continued using the keys mark after the buyout on select lines is what must be determined.
Mark 1 is quite interesting. Even though it is similar to some other British pseudo-marks that might be called florals, I think this one may represent propellors and many British firms incorporated marine objects around this era. We see ship depictions added into stamps on China, possibly related to the fact that trade was carried out in the cargo holds of these steamers. So why not add something like this to silverplate marks related to exports?
And here’s a kicker…on the Silvermakers Marks site, one unidentified mark includes the key-in-shield next to three encircled letters of E, G, & S. This could mean Electro-Plated German Silver and we know that similar marks (P.G.S.) were used by at least one British maker. So why not another like Wilkinson? This is still all just conjecture at this point. It might take a long time before enough overlapping mark samples turn up to be able to point a finger at a single suspect.