British Hallmark facing wrong side - Dutch?

Henri · Post by **Henri** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 3:06 pm

Maybe somebody can help me, I have a wedgewood black sugar bowl? on a silver stand. The stand has 3 hallmarks, one is an S and one is the lion. I have checked the page and I found a bunch of S years. But it is the lion that boggles my mind, the lion is facing the oposite direction of the hall mark lions shown on the page. Is this normal or is it a different city then London as I think that catouche comes the closest. The other mark is difficult to see what it is but it looks like initials, W with the E attached to it. All help is greatly appreciated.

Henri
Netherlands.

SilverSurfer · Post by **SilverSurfer** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:02 pm

There are a number of "wrong way" lions, and a photo is well needed to make a reasonably sure attribution. The Netherlands is probably the most common, a lion rampant in a shield with a "I" for .934 silver (.925 post 1953) and a lion passant in a hexagon with a "II" for .833 silver (.835 post 1953). Also some makers in Canada used a pseudo-hallmark of a lion, which would generally appear to be on the crude side as compared to the Netherlands true hallmarks.

SS

SilverSurfer · Post by **SilverSurfer** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:10 pm

The lion mark is pretty definitely the Netherlands quality hallmark, though I can't tell for sure whether it is the earlier or later mark (.833 or .835 fine silver). The "S" mark is likely the date, seems closest to 1852, other "S" dates are 1902 (gothic), 1928 (sans serif), and 1953. The cojoined "WE" may be the maker's mark, which I can't identify.

SS