Elkington & Co - dating information needed -new PHOTOS

British Silver Reading Silver Hallmarks
1

Hi, I’m new to this list and hope someone can point me in the right direction please.

I have a letter opener made by Elkington & Co and I don’t know if it is silver or silver plate. It is stamped E & Co, theres also a shield and in it is a little crown with E & Co underneath.

There is also a diamond shape stamp and there is a C or possibly a G stamped inside the diamond.

Would anyone know when this was made and also where I can get Elkington date stamp information from. I’ve googled but can’t find anything.

There are no other marks on it so would I assume it is silver plate or could it be silver? I would have attached a photo but the camera has gone walkies…

Thanks in advance of any information

2

Searching for “elkington date letters” gives this site as the first hit. I think you may find what you want there. The letter opener is plated, not solid silver.

3

Thanks for your reply. I’ve looked at the site with the Elkington date marks but I still can’t date it.

Dating with the lozenge starts with a K in 1849 and this is stamped with a C inside a lozenge. Unusual?

You can also see that this letter opener was stamped on the other side of the handle with Victoria Hotel Company, Southport Pier.

Any ideas on value as well as date would be appreciated.

I’ve managed to download and attach some pics.

Thanks again :slight_smile:
DSC00094a.JPG
DSC00095a.JPG

4

That’s weird. It definitely seems to be from 1849 to 1864, but there was no C (or G) used in that series. I’m stumped.

5

I have encounted a lot of problems with the date marks for Elkington too.

If your piece dated to between 1849 and 1864, as the date mark suggests, it should also be marked E M & Co for Elkington, Mason & Company ( 1842-1864 ).

Just going by the other marks I’d say your letter opener dates to between 1865 and 1897.

Here’s an example of the date mark “S in a diamond”, for 1857, being used with different sets of marks from different time frames.

6

Thanks to you both for your replies.

The letter opener is from the Victoria Hotel in Southport which still exists as the Alexandra & Victoria today. I will contact the hotel to find out when it opened as the Victoria and changed to the Alexandra & Victoria which may give me a narrower time frame.

Any further comments most welcome - thanks for your help so far, I’ll keep you posted when I get more information. :slight_smile:

7

Sue

You have probably found this out already but the date is 1869. See note 16 on the Elkington page of www.silvercollection.it