posted 10-05-2009 05:10 PM            

My wife brought this tea pot home from the flea market yesterday and it has some interesting features. It is a silverplate tea pot with a mark as shown above. The mark is within a misshaped oval has the appearance of being inserted into the bottom sometime after the tea pot had been constructed. It could be that something else caused the silver to be worn away and the result simply was the outline of an oval. I really cannot think of any reason why one would want to put a non-original mark on this pot.

The mark is worn – looks something like an urn – and is on a striated background.

The pictures below show some of the features of the tea pot that are attractive and seem to be fairly true to the 18th century version. Most likely this one was made after 1900.

posted 10-05-2009 06:04 PM            

'I really cannot think of any reason why one would want to put a non-original mark on this pot.'

Marks on silverplate are frequently about how the piece was sold not who made it. My understanding is that the metal was shaped and then sold to various jobbers around the world. This got around tariff problems with finished goods. So, there might be several hundred unassembled tea pots held by jobbers in the US. As requests for them came in, the jobber would assemble the pot, have it plated and then sent out. My understanding is that retailers never held a large inventory of these. But the retailer could request some sort of distinctive mark. Which given the small number per order would be economically done by hand.

posted 10-06-2009 04:57 PM            

'Established in Sheffield, England in 1785 and brought into the United States in the early 1940's, the dedicated tradition has continued in offering the finest original quality products, designs and lovingly handcrafted creations.

Bell Mark was originally registered to Roberts, Cadman and Company in 1785, then registered to Roberts, Smith and Company in 1828, and later registered to Smith, Sissons and Company in 1848. It wasn't until about a century later in the 1940's that L. Ben Tobert relocated Bell Mark to New York City and shortly thereafter, Beverly Hills, California, where once again, the rich heritage of fine quality silver-smithing and craftsmanship continued.

The Ponce family had direct contact with Bell Mark since it was shipped to the United States in the early 1940's. Paulino E. Ponce, a craftsman at Bell Mark, would create beautiful hand crafted designs to reproduce the elegant workmanship of the 18th century. His son, Paul Ponce, later joined his father to create beautiful works of art. Bell Mark was taken over be the Ponce family in 1975 and moved to the Los Angeles, California area. Working side by side both father, Paulino E. Ponce, and son, Paul Ponce, would work on Bell Mark's Old World tradition of manufacturing the beauty of the early craftsmanship.

In 1992, Paulino E. Ponce retired and left Bell Mark in the hands of his son, Paul Ponce, to continue the generations of silver-smithing. In that same year, Paul Ponce relocated Bell Mark to Peoria, Arizona. There he has continued these traditions as well as creating remarkably original and innovative designs with his immediate family. Not only have Paulino E. Ponce and Paul Ponce always had a great passion and interest in becoming expert silversmiths, but also, to this day many members of the Ponce family are practicing this trade as well.'

posted 10-06-2009 05:12 PM            

There are no teapots on offer. They do have urns and endless chafing dishes. Also champagne fountains and wine coolers.

Custom work seems to be the main offering. Very nice quality as shown by their new wine bucket:

posted 10-07-2009 08:49 PM            

The interior of the pot does have some metal that was added. This metal, as best as I can tell, does not cover the identical area as the misshaped oval ring seen from the bottom.

I have no idea why this metal was added and as you can see whoever did it was not very skilled.

A good deal of discussion has been generated for a teapot that cost less than a good hamburger. One never knows what they will find at a flea market.

I love OSP and wish I saw more of it. Below are a couple of my favorites in OSP. Both of these show the skill of the silversmith in covering the copper that would normally show on the edges. I wish that the names of these silversmiths were available today.

I suspect that most of the OSP manufacturers copied designs from the solid silver trade. Does anyone know of an occasion when the OSP manufacturers initiated their own original design?