HALLMARKS OF ENGLISH AND BRITISH SILVER MAKER'S MARK IDENTIFICATION THE DIRECTORY OF ENGLISH, SCOTTISH, IRISH, CHANNEL ISLANDS AND COLONIES SILVERMITHS

created by Giorgio B. owner of www.silvercollection.it ©

This is a page of A Small Collection of Antique Silver and Objects of vertu, a 1000 pages richly illustrated website offering all you need to know about antique silver, sterling silver, silverplate, sheffield plate, electroplate silver, silverware, flatware, tea services and tea complements, marks and hallmarks, articles, books, auction catalogs, famous silversmiths (Tiffany, Gorham, Jensen, Elkington, WMF, Reed & Barton, Mappin & Webb, Bateman Family), history, oddities ... SITE MAP - HOME PAGE

B.H.J Barnet Henry Joseph B.H. Joseph & Co, 1865-1929. Incorporated into Payton, Pepper & Co Ltd in 1929. The business of manufacturing and wholesale jewellers was commenced by Barnet Henry Joseph and his brother Henry Joseph in 1865 in Birmingham. When Henry retired (1869) was succeeded by another brother Joseph Joseph. From 1878 B.H. Joseph & Co opened showrooms in London and in 1889 was said to be one of the largest jewellery houses in the trade. B.H. Joseph & Co took over the manufacturing jewellers D.L. Davis of Birmingham (1891), Arthur E. Cohen of Birmingham (1906) and incorporated Walter & George Myers of Birmingham (1910). B.H. Joseph & Co amalgamated in 1929 with Payton, Pepper & Sons Ltd, manufacturing jewellers of Birmingham. B.H. Joseph & Co was noted as importer of Dutch silver made by J. v Straten & Co of Hoorn (1892) and A de Pleyt of Schoonhoven (1894). London 1891 import hallmark

B.H.M Berthold Hermann Muller London 1912 import hallmark

London	Birmingham	Dublin	Edinburgh	Sheffield	Chester

The hallmarking of British silver is based on a combination of marks that makes possible the identification of the origin and the age of each piece.
The marks are:

Town mark, corresponding to the mark of the assay office that has verified the piece

Lion's passant guardant or Britannia or lion's head erased certifiying the silver's quality

Maker's mark, identifying the silversmith presenting the piece to the assay office

Date letter, in cycles of twenty letters of the alphabet of different shape identifies the year in which the piece was verified by the assay office

A further mark was used in the period 1784 - 1890:
Sovereign head ('duty mark'), certifying the payment of duty