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

	HG Henry Greenaway London 1790 hallmark
	HG Hugh Gordon mark as Assay Master Edinburgh 1758 hallmark

HG Henry S. Gilling gold case maker, mark registered on 6 October 1848. Henry Slader Gilling is first recorded as a rose engine-turner from 1839 to 1845 at 41 King Square and then in 1846 and 1847 as an engine-turner at 2 Upper Charles Street, Northampton Square, Clerkenwell. He then went in business with Peter Clerc, trading as Gilling & Clerc, listed as watch case and dial makers at 1 Upper Charles Street. The partnership was dissolved in 1848 after which H.S. Gilling continued as a watch case and dial maker at the same address. He was succeeded in 1862 by Percy Gilling. London 1855 hallmark

H.G &S into an oblong chamfered rectangle Henry Griffith & Sons The business, commenced in Birmingham by Henry Griffith in 1850, was continued as Henry Griffith & Sons (until 1898) and later as Henry Griffith & Sons Ltd Birmingham 1932 hallmark Chester 1897 hallmark London 1919 hallmark Sheffield 1975 hallmark

	H.G &S without contour Henry Griffith & Sons, Birmingham 1929 hallmark
	H.G. &S. without contour not identified - possibly Henry Griffith & Sons, Sheffield 1975 hallmark Sheffield 1978 hallmark
	HGH over SAP in script into a scalloped frame Hicklenton & Sydal -H G Hicklenton & S A Phillips-, London 1928 hallmark
	HGM into an upper cut corners rectangle Henry George Murphy, An English art deco silversmith (1884-1939) operating in his Falcon Studio (workshop and retail in Weymouth Street, London) and in the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. The Falcon Studio employed as craftsmen Massey and Hammond, the jewellery and silver teachers at the Central School where Murphy was the first silversmith to be appointed 'Principal'. London 1934 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