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eBay: Further stuff about the bits I sell on eBay
Further details about the goods I sell on eBay. They're here because we can have many more links than eBay's good eBayer policy allows. My blog also allows comments and even trackback, which will be good for adding further details or questions about individual items.

I'm SteveHoo. So called because "I'm not a hoe I'm a Hooker." Something I used to say a lot when checking into data collecting telephonists. It was funny, you had to be there, four times a day for 10 months. 8 character passwords!

Shipping costs we'll work out for you, inside the UK, USA and worldwide. Packaging we pay ourselves.
Our terms and conditions includes our returns policy, simply put, if you don't like it, send it back. We'll refund the item's cost, you pick up the postage. You'll also find our snail mail address and phone numbers.
How to pay! Currently, outside the UK we can only accept payPal or bidPay.
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Fine Antique English Solid Silver Desert Fork circa 1912/13

13 October 2003   

 

Fine Antique English Solid Silver Desert Fork circa 1912/13

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Hallmarks - Lion passant (sterling silver), Leopard's head (London), Date letter r (1912) and Maker's mark GJ/DF (George Jackson and David Fullerton).

When you say, 'Silver?' "Sterling is the American and British standard for silver, used to produce most elaborate and costly pieces. The sterling standard is 925 parts of silver to 75 parts copper in every 1000 parts sterling silver."

Scrounging around a mate's cutlery draw I found three items with a hallmark, apparently, his great Nan, used to work as a chamber maid, somewhere. After looking them up I was surprised to find out how old they are and this is the second item to be sold...

Lovely little solid sterling silver desert fork, nearly a hundred years old. With the very first owner's initials engraved in the handle (EMJ). I don't know who that is, but in 1912 just before the Great War (WW1), around here in Telford, Shropshire, UK, there weren't that many who could afford cutlery, let alone silver AND to have their initials engraved in each and every piece of the cutlery service! For sure they were the nobs' upper crust. I wonder where the rest of the silver service is, probably still in their original box,. Wouldn't the owner of that box of EMJ engraved silver service cutlery want this to complete the set? Unless it was split up. Who knows!

Most likely it was sold out of a shop in Shrewsbury (14 miles) or Ironbridge (5 miles). Maybe a descendant of the Darby family who built the first span iron bridge in 1781 thereby starting the industrial revolution. Or, the owners or bankers of Jackfield Tile Factory, The Broseley Clay Pipe Works or the Coalport China Works all very busy at the time. But over the coming decades the Ironbridge area fell on bad times.

Fully hallmarked for London 1912/13 and with the maker's mark (a shield) of George Jackson and David Fullerton becoming a little worn after the years of cleaning and polishing. I guess it wasn't stamped in as deep as the hallmarks or it was rubbed more there when cleaned by the servants. I guess experts would know about this.

Apparently, George Jackson and David Fullerton "are known for making a wide range of articles but particularly good flatware." I guess that means hammering forks out of sheets of solid sterling silver?

One of the prongs is ever so slightly pushed inwards. Easily pulled back straight, but don't want to ruin the history of this dear little desert fork, so I'll leave it up to it's next owner.

Fork: 1.019 ounces or 29.0 grams. 6 1/4" or 158 mm


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