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History of some cutlery please?!

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Author	Topic: History of some cutlery please?!
daran Posts: 5 Registered: Jul 2004	posted 07-13-2004 06:13 AM Can anyone help? We have recently inherited some silver cutlery from my late father-in-law, and would like to find out a bit about their history. There are a few hallmarks on the back of them, none of which I have been able to find anything out about! I know they will be quite old, possibly turn of the century, as they belonged to my father-in-law's grand father. My photo isn't brilliant, my camera isn't very good at close ups!! The 1st box has "10 DWTS" in it, then a "star" shape with either an "s" or a "$" in it, I can't quite tell which. Then are the letters B,H,A, all in separate squares, then there is a diamond shape with the letters "R and a small "o" or"d", then "EP" in a circle then the letter "C" in a square at the end. Am I right in thinking they might only be electro plate rather than sterling silver, as there is no assay office mark on them at all? If anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated. It would be lovely to find out where they came from and how old they are. Thanks a lot. [photo doesn't show] IP: Logged
Patrick Vyvyan Posts: 640 Registered: May 2003	posted 07-13-2004 10:37 AM I'm afraid your photo doesn't open. Even so your pieces are silverplate and almost certainly British. EP stands for electro-plate and 10 dwts is 10 pennyweight, the amount of silver used to plate a certain number of items (probably a dozen). The diamond with Rd sounds like the British Registered Design mark in use from 1842 to 1883. There should be letters and numbers in the different corners of the diamond which give the date code, can you give us more details? IP: Logged
daran Posts: 5 Registered: Jul 2004	posted 07-13-2004 10:58 AM thanks for that Patrick - I am trying to upload the picture from a different website, but it isn;t clear enough to see the other symbols in the diamond. I can't really make them out with the naked eye, but I will try to find a magnifying glass - there is something underneath the "R" and "d". Thanks for your help, will reply again later. IP: Logged
Kimo Posts: 1652 Registered: Mar 2003	posted 07-13-2004 12:15 PM To give a bit more information, I believe the DWT number is more commonly the average amount used to plate 144 items (spoons, forks, knife handles). There are 20 DWT in a troy ounce and an average silver plated set of forks/spoons/knives these days runs about 2 ounces of silver (40 DWT) per 144 items, so your 10 DWT items would be lightly plated, and affordable for people of modest means. Another bit of interest is the reason for the abbreviation DWT using a D instead of a P for Penny is that the abbreviation for penny in the U.K. was the letter D up until 1971 when they decimilized their currency and swithed to the letter P. The reason they used the D was that it was an abbreviation for the word denarius which was a small coin used in the Roman empire, of which England was once a part. IP: Logged
Patrick Vyvyan Posts: 640 Registered: May 2003	posted 07-13-2004 12:36 PM In an earlier thread, DWTS - What does it mean? I posted a photo of a spoon marked 10 DWTS DOZ, which I guessed at the time was ten pennyweight per dozen. IP: Logged

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