Attractive set of pierced and engraved fish servers, with a very comfortable feel. Albany pattern handles, which are loaded. The Albany pattern was the only 19th century pattern to join the standard patterns after 1860. It was named after Queen Victoria's youngest son, the Duke of Albany, who died in 1884. Very clear hallmarks.

A rare Oban silver pickle fork with Iona style St. Martin's Cross finial, made by Robert Lindsay in Oban in 1929 and hallmarked in Sheffield. The fork has splayed fat tines, so ideal for pickles or cold meats. The hallmarks are clear, and include makers mark RL in 2 circular punches, and "R.LINDSAY, OBAN". Lindsay is only recorded for 2 years between 1927 and 1929, we assume the tourist trade was insufficient to support him, so his silver is rare (as is all Oban silver, see our butter knives by Drummond S 1931). He produced small spoons, knives and forks, all with Iona crosses, alongside napkin rings. We welcome additional information on Robert Lindsay, this is a beautiful fork, he deserved to flourish!

An extremely rare Victorian silver Palm pattern dessert fork, which is gilded, no engraving is present. Pickford describes the rarity of Palm pattern in his book "Silver Flatware", pg 148. The hallmarks are clear, including makers mark GA for George Adams of Chawner & Co, and in addition a journeyman's mark L is also clearly struck. Palm pattern appears in the Chawner & Co (George Adams) pattern books, who were the most important 19th century silver flatware makers. Please note we also have Palm pattern soup spoons (S1612), made by George Adams in 1876.

A beautiful sterling silver master butter knife in the Moresque pattern, made by Wendt of Boston and retailed by Starr & Marcus of 5th Avenue, New York. The butter knife has a twist handle (at 90 degrees to the flat handle version), the blade is engraved with bright cut foliage on one side, on the reverse it is engraved "Christmas 02" (for 1902). It also has engraved initial P in fancy script, the original owner. The Moresque pattern was designed by Bernhard Beiderhase for John Wendt, it was patented in 1873 during the "Persian Revival" period (other patterns include Arabesque, Hinostanee and Persian). It has been described as "one of the nicer American exotic patterns, arguably the most complex". John Wendt has been described as "one of the most important American silversmiths of the mid 19th century", his work is highly collectable. He was a German immigrant, he emigrated to the USA in 1848. The hallmarks are clear, "STARR & MARCUS, STERLING, PATENT". Wendt worked as a manufacturer for prestigious retailers...

A Chinese Export silver butter knife in the Fiddle pattern, with Stags head crest and original owners initials TMK. The knife is good quality, easily comparable to an English Georgian example. The hallmarks are excellent, and include pseudo duty mark, pseudo crowned leopards head (London town mark pre 1821), pseudo date letter P in incuse rectangle with cut corners, pseudo lion passant and makers mark WE WE WC. This is an imitation of the makers mark for William Eley, William Fearn and William Chawner. The Chinese Export silver collectors guide (4th edition, pg 763-767) says this maker remains unidentified, but was responsible "for an astounding production of silver items, almost all in the European neo-classical style. The work of WE WE WC is par excellence, it can rival the best of English, European and American silversmiths of the Georgian era. There is no such thing as a poor piece of WE WE WC silver. To have the wherewithal to create silver that rivaled the finest European and American silversmiths of th...

A beautiful scoop in excellent condition, with very clear hallmarks. In addition, this scoop has an interesting bundled snake crest, also in excellent condition. This scoop is also slightly larger and heavier than others we have seen.

A pair of Arts & Crafts Danish silver tablespoons, in a modernist Georg Jensen style Martele pattern, with matching cheese knife. The pattern is planished, or hand hammered, (Martele is French for hammer, Gorham uses the Martele brand for its hand hammered range), this creates an uneven surface which reflects the light, so a very pleasing pattern. The pattern also has balls and scrolls. The spoons are hand hammered on the front side of the handle only, but the bowls are planished on both sides. The spoons have original owners initials CC engraved on the back, the knife has no engraving. All 3 items have 2 clear hallmarks, the Danish 3 tower silver guarantee mark for 826/1000 grade, with date letters (the spoons are 1925 and the knife is 1927). They also have assay masters mark CFH for Christian F. Heise, who worked between 1904 and 1932.

A set of 4 matching Norwegian silver pickle forks (830 grade) in the Dronning pattern, made in Oslo by leading silversmith Jacob Tostrup. Two forks are larger and 2 are smaller, so perfect for serving larger items like cold meats and smaller more delicate items. The forks have 2 curved tines, and the Dronning pattern reminds us of English Fiddle and Shell pattern. All 4 forks are clearly hallmarked with the Tostrup tankard makers mark, and silver standard mark 830S. The forks have no engraving. Tostrup was founded in 1832, and is still one of Norway's leading silversmiths today

A mixed set of antique American sterling silver, comprising of an olive spoon and olive fork. The spoon is Towle Empire pattern, patent 1894, with gold wash pierced bowl, this is a beautiful spoon. It was designed by George P Tilton, and has no monogramme. The fork is by Clark & Biddle, made between 1866 and 1870, it has a twisted stem, 3 tines with barbs, and intricate engraving. The fork has engraved owners initial P in fancy script, and is also engraved on the back "Thanksgiving 02", we assume 1902. Both items are clearly hallmarked.

A practical and interesting set of Arts & Crafts handmade sterling silver ice tongs, made by Leonore Doskow of New York. The tongs consist of a square silver rod that has been twisted in a circle to create a spring, with two 2 pronged grips, which are curved inwards, with sharp points, very suitable for picking up ice cubes (definitely the most practical ice tongs we have ever used). One arm is hallmarked "LEONORE DOSKOW HANDMADE STERLING", this is well struck and clear. Leonore Doskow (1911-2008) turned a hobby into a career during the Great Depression, a sugar bowl she made was exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1940. Her business grew to employ 75 staff during its peak, mostly producing silver novelties and silver containing monogrammes. She was featured in a Silver Magazine article in 1973.

Beautiful christening set (boxed spoon and fork) with Hey diddle diddle nursery rhyme, in original box. Exquisite detail, as can be seen from the photographs. Spoon bowl shows detail of complete nursery rhyme. The shafts have a dog, the cow jumping the moon and the cat (who has mysteriously switched from a fiddle to a cello!). Levi and Salaman were well known for their large selection of intricate souvenir spoons. Very clear hallmarks.

A sterling silver dessert fork in the magnificent Bacchanalian pattern. This is one of the rarest English silver flatware patterns, it was originally produced by Paul Storr. The fork shows Bacchus, the Roman God of wine, riding a lion, whilst a topless Diana looks on, with another figure asleep at her feet. The back of the fork is also beautifully decorated, with a masque over a theatre curtain, and tilted amphora of wine. Bunches of grapes and vine leaves complete the decoration. The fork has original owners engraved initials AMD. The fork is extremely good quality, quite heavy to hold, and the hallmarks are clear. They include makers mark FH for Francis Higgins and London hallmarks for 1846. Bacchanalian pattern is shown in "Silver Flatware" by Pickford (pg. 127), where a dessert service made by Wakely and Wheeler is depicted. The pattern was originally designed by Thomas Stothard, the famous painter and designer, for Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, the Royal silversmiths, in 1812, the first service was used by ...

A pair of Cape silver table forks, quite Colonial in character, with excellent Cape silver hallmarks. The forks are similar to Old English pattern with 4 tines, but have a wide flattened end and semi rounded stem, more continental in character than English. The forks have original engraved initials JR, this too is Colonial in style with bright cut flecks around the initials. The hallmarks on both forks are clear, crude anchor, makers mark IC, anchor, mark 22 in Cape Silver by Welz. One fork has 2 very old (and quite crude)repairs to both external tines, it looks like they were re-attached, now very secure. Despite the repair to one fork, we really like this pair, loads of character. We have dated these forks to early in Combrink's career, prior to the arrival of the English silversmiths in 1820.

An interesting 17th century style silver notched 2 pronged fork, a replica of the earliest known English table fork. The fork has 3 notches at the top of the stem, a rare feature seen occasionally on puritan spoons. The hallmarks are beautiful, large and well struck, they form part of the decoration. The original, made in 1632, is known as the Manners Fork, and is in the V&A museum in London. The original belonged to the Rutland family of Haddon Hall, and has the crest of John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland. This fork is a good gauge, very pleasing to use, we tested it on cold meats and olives! The hallmarks are excellent, and include makers mark FH for Francis Howard, the firm worked between 1900 and 1986. The fork comes in it's original box, with pickle fork explanatory card, and expalnation of the hallmarks. A real talking point for your dinner table. This fork is identical to S 1568 which we have already sold, and S1808.

Two Chinese Export silver dessert forks in the Fiddle pattern, which we have grouped together as we believe they are by the same maker, Sunshing. The forks have slightly different sizes, shape and weight, the longer fork is slightly heavier at 46 grammes. The smaller fork has engraved script initials PK, this is worn. The larger fork has a turn up end, the smaller turn down, so 2 very different interpretations of Fiddle pattern , interesting to compare. The larger fork has clear makers mark SS, with distinctive font, for Sunshing, and 3 pseudo marks, duty mark, crowned leopards head (struck upsidedown, and indistinct), and a strange lion passant (without tail), these pseudo marks are different from the ones usually used by Sunshing, the punches are also showing signs of wear. The second fork has 4 pseudo marks but no makers mark, the 4 hallmarks are those usually associated with Sunshing (pseudo lion passant, crowned leopards head, date letter C and Georgian duty mark) - see www.925-1000.com. These marks are...

An interesting 17th century style silver notched 2 pronged fork, a replica of the earliest known English table fork. The fork has 3 notches at the top of the stem, a rare feature seen occasionally on puritan spoons. The original, made in 1632, is known as the Manners Fork, and is in the V&A museum in London. The original belonged to the Rutland family of Haddon Hall, and has the crest of John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland. This fork is a good gauge, very pleasing to use, we tested it on cold meats and olives! The hallmarks are excellent, and include makers mark FH for Francis Howard, the firm worked between 1900 and 1986. The fork comes in it's original box, with label "V.K. Chapman, Jeweller & Silversmith, 104 South St, St. Andrews", A real talking point for your dinner table. This fork is identical to S 1568 which we have already sold, made 2 years later.

A Cape silver Fiddle pattern dessert fork, with contemporary engraved initial M. The fork has excellent hallmarks, makers mark WM and the Cape Stub mark (see our articles section) consisting of 4 English pseudo hallmarks, Lion passant, date letter capital A, Georgian kings head duty mark and leopards head (town mark for London). The fork is very good quality and weight, and is suitable for use. The tines are very long, longer than usual, this fork has probably not been used. What is interesting about this Cape stub mark is that the punch is showing signs of wear, particularly the Leopards head. This lead to a mistake in Morrison (The Silversmiths and Goldsmiths of the Cape of Good Hope, 1936, pg 59), and later Heller (History of Cape Silver), where the hallmark is mistakenly drawn as an anchor (MM63 in Heller, pg 154).

A Chinese export silver dessert spoon and fork, in the Fiddle, Thread and Shell pattern. This pair is exceptionally good gauge, this is probably the heaviest dessert spoon and fork we have ever encountered, over 80 grams each, in fact heavier than many tablespoons and forks. They are typical of the good quality, early Chinese export silver that imitated the plain English Georgian silver styles. The hallmarks are clear on both, and include "pseudo English" crowned leopards head, duty mark and lion passant, along with makers mark CC. The lion hallmark punch is quite distinctive, the right hand edge merges with the back leg of the lion. CC is an unidentified silversmith who worked from Canton between 1800 and 1850, generally producing good quality silver.

Plain marrowscoop, by specialist spoonmaker Elizabeth Oldfield. This scoop is very dainty, being smaller than later versions. Oldfield was the widow of silversmith Charles Jackson, and had a previous mark as Elizabeth Jackson. She remarried in 1750, when the mark pictured here was registered. The hallmarks are clear, and the original owners initials "WY" are scratched in small letters next to the makers mark.

An interesting and well travelled Georgian silver butterknife, with carved mother of pearl (nacre) handle. The butterknife has a scimitar shaped solid silver blade, with irregular wavy top, engraved with reeded bands and fan decoration. The handle has carved beads, bands and a fan like structure, this gives a good grip and pleasant feel in the hand. A silver ferrule covers the join between blade and handle. The knife is clearly hallmarked with 5 Birmingham hallmarks, including makers mark LV&W for Ledsam, Vale and Wheeler, this mark used between 1826 (when Wheeler joined Ledsam & Vale) and 1834. The blade also has 3 additional hallmarks, the first a shaped V, a Dutch duty mark for foreign silver used between 1814 -1831, so the knife entered the Netherlands shortly after it was made. The other 2 hallmarks are French, Minerva facing right (guarantee mark for foreign silver) and the Bigorne (beak-iron) mark with insect, used as a counter mark between 1819 and 1838, all these marks are clear. the book "Pocket ...