posted 01-07-2009 04:51 PM            

I recently purchased this 1735 George II London marked coffee pot and have been trying to find out who the maker was. I have been through Jackson (not Grimwade, but Grimwade is on order) from 1710 on and have not found any mark even close. Perhaps, I have the mark posted upside down,, like I have done before, but I do not think so. The pot is 8.5" tall. There are no coat of arms or any engraving, nor signs of removals on the body.

Also, it is nice to see scratch marks on the bottom showing the piece weighed 24 oz, 16 dwt. That is 24.8 troy oz. The current weight of the piece is 24.55 troy oz.. A difference of 1/4 oz or 7.7 grams. Not much lost in 274 years.!

The marks on the rim of the lid ( quality mark and makers mark) are worn to the point of being unreadable.

Thanks for your help.

Marc

posted 01-07-2009 06:09 PM            

If it is Pero, Grimwade describes his work as rare and of a high standard.

posted 01-07-2009 09:33 PM            

That is one of the 2 marks I circled in Jackson as being most likely, but I was not sure of the first letter.

Thanks much.

posted 01-09-2009 11:53 AM            

Thanks for the question.

This coffee pot came from a consignment shop I get calls from on a regular basis. I get calls from all sorts of businesses when they get or see silver because I pay retainers to call me first.

Anyhow, when I got to the shop, the owner took me to the back where a large pile of silver, already priced, sat under a sheet. There were about 25 lots to look through, and my first impression was that the prices were about 30% higher than I wanted to pay. I saw the pot with a $95.price on it , and thought 'Ellis-Barker' or 'Elkington' electroplate, and went on to look at an Italian gravy boat, and the "Revere" style bowls, and a set of flatware.

Now,.. I do not like to leave Bill's shop without buying something, so I asked Bill if there was any room in the prices... He said no, the prices had been set by the appraiser, and the attorney handling the estate, said let the prices stand. I thought that there should be something there to buy, so I started going through the pile again. This time, I took a second look at the pot and a first look at the marks, and Hanau silver from the 1890's came to mind. The makers mark does resemble the German marks when viewed without my glasses. I pulled them on and upon close examination, the British sterling hallmarks stood out. Now, a "V" date letter is unusual, so I got excited. I was going to buy that pot. There was other British silver in the estate that was correctly identified, but the wear and the spacing of the pot's marks made him (the appraiser) think "electo-platers' pseudos", and he priced it as such.

Since Bill charges 45% to his consigners, I decided that I would take the entire grouping, (high prices and all) and give him another $500,. finders fees. This gave him a large instant profit, made the estate attorney happy that the merch had sold, and gave me a project. What fun!

As an aside, It has been over 10 years since I used the book, (The Price Guide to Antique Silver, Peter Waldren), and I never used it for prices since they were out of date when the book was published many years ago (1982), but the amount of killer information on evolution of design, fakes, repairs, and hallmarks makes this book necessary to any silver library.

I went home, went to my "Waldron" to look up coffee pots, to see what they looked like, and to see if they were often faked, and what were the most often repairs made.

Then to Jacksons, Then to you.

One hand washes the other.

posted 08-14-2009 07:05 PM            

However, a silversmith friend has recently told me that it will often have been the other way round. Manufacturing silversmiths would often mark a piece for the retailer who had ordered it (the sponsor). Retailers are and were prone to treat the makers badly and cancel orders, themselves having been treated as badly by their clients. The maker would then be left with items marked for somebody who was no longer the sponsor so would have to re-mark them in order to submit them for assay and sell them elsewhere.