7" Sheffield? Forks w/no silver mark

[imluvnlyf]

How do I tell? I neither see the common lion mark nor other indication of their silver on these forks. They are used. I have polished them and see no wear to a different base metal. I do see a crown which I believe indicates Sheffield, England. I assume the other marks are makers and dates. A = year, H & H = maker, crown = Sheffield. How to determine the silver?

[Traintime]

Maybe look through (scrolldown) all the mark variants of Harrison Brothers & Howson here: https://www.silvercollection.it/electro ... lverH.html

They sometimes drop the “B” for Brothers. The angular ampersand has similarities in some versions. The”A” is likely to be either a plate quality just below “A-1”, or else symbolic for their ‘Alpha” plate trademark. The crown comes and goes. And they don’t always spell out Sheffield. Beyond that, the site has images of numerous unidentifieds in four sections..use the master list of British silverplate.

[imluvnlyf]

Thank you Traintime! WOW there are so many marks to research!. So the "A" is what indicates that it is plated instead of sterling? It is very thickly plated for sure as the collection of these pieces are well-used and I have polished a couple of pieces heavily and no base metal is appearing (yet).

[Traintime]

The Quality Symbols section on this page will get you amounts of silver used in each application of the plating process: https://www.silvercollection.it/diction ... mbols.html

[dognose]

It has to be said that there was no form of regulation in the trade at this time. Firm X's 'C' quality may well have been superior to Firm Y's 'A1' quality. Not all firms made a range of qualities, most just made two types.

The chart mentioned refers to Barker Bros. only.

Trev.