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Help needed please on the maker JH.
This knife has a replacement blade (1840's ?) by Harvey, Denton & Co 64 Strand and is 10.5 inches long ?
The handle has Lion one side and maker mark JH along with a dog crest on the other.
I take it that the handle is pre 1784 as no duty mark.
Perhaps a lost register maker from that period.
A nice item and would be good to track down a maker.




Thanks in advance
Robert

Could that be Joseph Hicks from Exeter? He was active 1780-1835 so if it's him the date would be around 1780-84. I'm not that familiar with provincial silver but I think the town mark was frequently omitted in small items like in London and the lion passant can look quite similar to London.

I suspect not Joseph Hicks. His JH punch is a fairly crude affair probably made locally; this seems to be a very neat job.

I also think that it may not be as early as first suggested. The use of the block letter J in makers' marks in the 18th century was very rare - it was normally represented by a script I or J. This may well therefore be a 19th century mark, possibly even contemporaneous with the blades. The form of the "hook" on the J is unusual as they normally looped round more. This should, in theory, make identification easy but I cannot find any matching mark - and, although I can't explain the lack of a date letter, the missing town mark is not unusual up to around 1820.

Phil

Just shooting in the dark, but James Harvey (Senior and Junior) were partners in Grayhurst, Harvey, Denton & Co. Might this be an overstamp of a registered mark?

Trev.

Thanks for the info so far.
I think that the knife detail seems more London so did not really consider Exeter made.
Would the handle have had a duty mark even if only made as a later replacement copy ?

Robert

In theory a replacement handle should have a duty mark if marked between 1785 and 1890.