posted 04-28-2005 03:29 PM            

I have a pair of tongs which appear to be made in the shop of Stephen Adams, marked in London, 1805. These tongs have no monogram and no ornamentation of any kind.

Question: Could this piece have never had a monogram, or is it more likely a monogram was removed? If removed, how could one determine that fact?[My tongs have a smooth and regular surface with no obvious sign of removal]

From my limited research, I've discovered 2 possible methods of monogram removal - buffing and burnishing. With buffing, material is removed - leaving the material thinner than before. With burnishing, the material is only displaced with little or no removal. Is burnishing out a monogram practical?

Thank you.

Note: Perhaps this topic more properly belongs in the General Silver forum.

posted 04-28-2005 11:46 PM            

Most mono removal starts with filing and/or grinding... how fast and how well, dictate the choice. Then heavey buffing or sanding, again fast vs well. Lastly stoning and a final polish.

If done well (not always slowly) there will be no sign of the removal, but normally this can be very time consuming on flat, or curved surfaces with the engraving close to any raised decoration. The trick is to blend in the removal to the surounding area. A bad job has an ugly depression that is (sorry) depressing.

One other way to spot a removal on holloware is to check the inside or back side. A good silversmith can push out the silver after the erasure to make the leval of the surface on the out side perfectly smooth. It is not easy and even with a good job the give away is the uneven surface inside where the tool was used.

One last little detail, when one is looking for tell tale signs aside from the uneven reflection, there are often tiny little pin holes left where the engraver made the deepest part of the cut. Often to get out those last tiny marks will make the removed area to thin. If you look closely with magnification where a mono might have been you might pick up a sprinkling of small pin holes.

posted 04-29-2005 09:47 AM            

I should also mention that if the patination is consistent across the entire piece, there is still the possibility that the mono was removed shortly after it was made. A removal that may have been obvious in 1820 or so would not be so obvious now.

Anyway, experience will generally tell you if a piece has been messed with. If you have handled lots of old silver and have seen mono removals, you will normally be able to spot them with ease. If you can't tell for certain (and I must say I still have pieces I am not sure about), then it is likely no one else will be able to either, and the point become moot.

posted 05-09-2005 02:13 PM            

This figure is biased towards a lower figure for owner marked tongs as my wife will rarely buy an erased mark one, one altered subsequently, or one where she has doubt as to the age of the inscription.

An additional bias to a lower original percentage to unmarked is introduced by “natural selection” as over the two centuries the owner marked items will be less appealing to sell to new owners and hence are more liable to being scrapped than if plain.

I think a figure of 25/75 percent split for tongs originally unowner marked/ owner marked is a reasonable “guesstimate”

Curiously the figures for shoe buckles over the same period are totally different. Of my 379 singles or pairs only 36 have an owners mark, less than 10%. Presumably this is for social reasons. Firstly the tongs tended to be in the kitchen/pantry area and were more susceptible to servant theft than more personally held items. Secondly tongs were more “on display" to visitors and pride comes in. Lastly tongs were probably a frequent gift and perhaps often inscribed by the donor.

Incidentally the form of some initials tell a story. One initial over two normally indicates a married couple the superior initial being the surname, the two inferiors the forenames of the partners (man first of course!).

Three or more initials in a line, often with three dots in a pyramidal form, or “grass-like” divider in between the initials is a good clue to a Channel Island item.