www.925-1000.com

___ No luck so far with this hallmark which was found alongside a STERLING hallmark on a flatware fork ___

It could be a cursive script "L" with two dashes in the body of the "L" and this is a better pic which tries to get the base of the "L" on the horizontal plane.

There is a similar "L" for "Lewis E. Jenks" of Boston (there is a tiny chance that this is an unknown hallmark for Lewis E. Jenks?)

I thought this could be "La Pierre" as well, but "La Pierre" has only one slash through the body of the "L" and not two slashes?

Listed by Rainwater (older editions) as Meriden Sterling Company c.1896 (gone by 1904) based in Meriden Connecticut as shown by Jeweler's Circular. Lettering above and around the triangle is present in the printed sample.

The fact that Jenks was absorbed by Gorham in 1880 is interesting:

"The only off-shoot of the family was Edward Kennard (son of Martin) who went into the wholesale silver business with Lewis Jenks in 1876. Their company, Kennard & Jenks was bought out by Gorham in 1880. "

The two pieces which bear this hallmark are hollowware toast forks, one slightly more ornate and repoussee than the other. And then, suddenly in 1880, Gorham shows up with hollowware toast forks? I have never seen any Gorham hollowware toast forks before 1880, so I was just trying to link Jenks and Gorham with these hollowware toast forks given that the hallmark is so extremely similar to the Jenks hallmark.

I just have a difficult time believing that this hallmark has nothing at all to do with Jenks. The similarities are so striking.

Maybe I will do some research on Meridian and find pieces with this hallmark, but so far I have not found any pieces or hallmarks. I am not saying this old reference book is in error, but I just wonder what was the evidence which this old reference book used to arrive at this conclusion.

Sorry, I meant "Meriden," I will try to research this company more thoroughly.

Not really following your logic on the toast forks/Jenks/ Gorham connection, but Rainwater is hardly some "old reference book", and as already mentioned, she cited her source as the Jewelers' Circular. The 'L' is a pound sterling symbol, old versions seen with both single and double cross-bars, have little doubt that Meriden Sterling, La Pierre and Jenks all used this as a nod to the their products being sterling silver...

From the 1904 edition of the Jewelers' Circular Trademark book:



~Cheryl

Sorry, meant to type "Older Reference Book," which was the description given to me in the above post, it mentions "Older Editions," no disrespect meant towards this authoritative tome.

U S Federal Census's, Church and marriage records lead me to believe that Frank H La Pierre was born Hiram Francis La Pierre.