Does anyone know a London pair of makers with S.B over I.B as their initials.
It is written in normal roman capitals in a square cartouche. The piece was an 1818 spoon.
Granmaa
Maker's mark S.B I.B on an 1818 spoon
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SilverSurfer
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Sarah Blake apparently took over the business of her deceased spoonmaker/smallworker husband in about 1809, when her mark was registered with her son, John William Blake. She was active in London until 1823. The Goldsmiths Company was somewhat lenient in allowing women to assume the businesses of their permaturely deceased husbands, the most famous example being Hester Bateman (who appears to be one of the few illiterate female goldsmiths, having signed the 1761 hallmark register with a crudely printed "HB" instead of a script-written name, as literacy was a Company required skill for apprenticeship, this being the only handwork craft that was considered acceptable for proper gentlemen and, by extension, ladies). A number of female goldsmiths did indeed complete apprenticeships and enter the craft in their own right, though perhaps as many or more inhertied the business. There were certainly many more female goldsmiths with their own mark in Britain than there were in the United States, where only a handful are known. If interested in female British goldsmiths (the more usual term in that time, goldsmithing and silversmithing being one and the same craft), I suggest obtaining the book, "Women Silversmiths 1685-1845" by Philippa Granville and Jennifer Goldsborough.
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