posted 09-04-2005 02:39 PM            

Original thread in the British/Irish forum:
Dublin spoon

As old hands know all too well, the earlier Irish marks can be highly problematic. I went through the photos in Bennett's Irish Georgian Silver -- better than Jackson for the period because he reproduced original sample marks -- and found no exact match. The outline around the crowned harp changes subtly from year to year, and one can sometimes identify the year just from that. The Hibernia cartouche also seems moderately distinctive here, a bit narrower than is typical.

When I copied Bennett I got only the pages from 1748 on, as that covered my needs at the time. I'll try to get my hands on the original again and look at the 1730 period, which I suspect may hold the answer (although the form, from what we can see, doesn't definitively point that way, as intimated by Silver Lyon's request for additional photos).

Will follow up later in the week when I've had a chance to check the Bennett original....

posted 09-04-2005 05:44 PM            

Here is the additional photo SilverLyon requested. I don't want to duplicate posts, but I am not sure you can access the British/Irish forum.