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Registered: May 99

posted 10-06-2006 11:27 AM            

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This is from a private collector I am trying to assist. It seems to be a great rarity--a colonial era silver bell. The owner's parents purchased it in the 1960s from a well known dealer as Daniel Dupuy (Philadelphia) and indeed in Wyler the mark is listed as one of Dupuy's. An expert at an auction house recently said to me that it was NOT Dupuy.

So, does anyone know this mark?

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posted 10-06-2006 02:42 PM            

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I don't know the mark, but I covet the bell - it's lovely. If its parents ever wish to place it for adoption, please let me know!

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posted 10-06-2006 02:44 PM            

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This mark could well be one of Daniel Dupuy, Sr.'s, but I cannot find an exact match for it. The mark in Wyler is redrawn from Graham's 1938 book, which in turn may have been drawn from a porringer exhibited in 1937 by the Pennsylania Chapter of the Colonial Dames. There are published photographs of only two marks with colons between the D's and attributed to the elder Dupuy, but neither is this one: one is in Prime's 1938 Three Centuries of Historic Silver, taken fro the above mentioned porringer, and the other is no. 849 in Buhler & Hood, taken from a spoon. The porringer descended in the family of the owner, a Mrs. Walter T. Moore, from her great grandparents, John and Elizabeth Guest, and so has a (presumably) Philadelphia history.

A note of caution is that the mark on the bell differs from all other published Dupuy marks in the small size of the letters relative to the margins of the punch - in most the letters large and crowded. This is the kind of mistake a forger might make, but on the other hand, most Dupuy marks lack a colon, so why fake one so uncommon that it would not be at all familiar to most people who know the several more common initial marks which lack the colon? American dinner bells are not at all common; the bell looks rather plain, and may be hard to date by style. I think, pending authentication of the mark and bell, a tentative attribution to Dupuy, Sr. could be appropriate, as he did use a colon, the use of which is not common in silver marks.

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posted 10-06-2006 03:20 PM            

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Perhaps wev will "chime" in on this (sorry-I couldn't resist), but it does not match the marks he has shown on his site for the elder Dupuy.

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posted 10-06-2006 07:03 PM            

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The top mark on wev's page is the type most commonly found; his alternate mark is the same as the Buhler & Hood mark mentioned above.

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posted 10-12-2006 08:55 PM            

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This mark is shown as a line drawing in the 1937 edition of American Silversmiths And Their Marks by Stephen G.C. Ensko. It shows the D mark but as it is a line drawing an exact comparison is not possible.

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posted 10-12-2006 08:56 PM            

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the mark is D I hit the wrong key

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posted 10-12-2006 08:58 PM            

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Why am I getting the face? I hit capital d then colon then capital d.

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posted 10-12-2006 09:41 PM            

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"ColonD" is the smiley code for "big grin." There should not be a space between the first D and the colon, but it automatically spaces. Do D : D (spaces on each side of the colon).

The Ensko mark is probably the same as the one in Three Centuries - large regular caps and a large colon. For some reason it was dropped from later editions of Ensko, and appears nowhere else that I have found. The one in Buhler & Hood has large irregular caps and a tiny colon. This one has small regular caps and a tiny off-center colon - similar but distinctly different.

[This message has been edited by swarter (edited 10-12-2006).]

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