George Edward and Sons Carving set: Harrison Brothers & Howson?

[themichaelfrank]

Heyyo 925 board, A George Edward and Sons Carving set. The case is marked as so and the blades of the knives. I was expecting to find the DE/GE mark under the loupe, but no. That’s where I’m tripped up …

Am I reading the marks correctly? Tell what you see or where I'm off:
1. the Lion mark = the purity mark,
2. a maker’s mark double of a “HH” = is that Harrison Brothers & Howson (?),
3. Then that diamond shaped mark with what looks like “Ra” and other letters surrounding it = no idea here.
4. a blocky ‘M’ mark in a square = is this 1879 (?),
5. a Crown assay = mark for Sheffield,
^Each knife and fork has all five of the marks, twice, on each sterling part. What I don’t see: a Duty Mark on any of the pieces.

Last, anyone have a guess what the material on the handle is?
Cheers, Michael

[silvermakersmarks]

Assembled and retailed by Edward & Sons but with sterling parts bought in from a specialist maker, Sheffield being the centre of the knife industry. For each of your points:

1. Lion passant shows .925 (sterling) standard
2. “HH” is the mark of Harrison Brothers & Howson
3. The diamond shaped mark - see below
4. M for the assay year 1879/80
5. Crown for Sheffield

Now the diamond mark - it is a Design Registration Mark (see https://www.925-1000.com/registry.html for a full explanation) and shows that the design was registered on 28 February 1878.

Duty was not payable for silver items of less than a certain weight (the actual weight escapes me at the moment) and such small items did not need to be assayed. Normally items sent for voluntary assay would be charged duty whatever the weight (a bit unfairly) but, certainly for Birmingham starting about 1879 or 1880, hallmarks without a duty mark started to appear. I have not noticed this before for Sheffield silver but I believe this is a likely explanation for the lack of a duty mark here.

There are numerous sites on the net which detail how to tell ivory from bone.

Phil

[themichaelfrank]

Fantastic, appreciate it Phil!