Hi
These are the hallmarks on a letter opener that belonged to my late mother, I now use it as intended, but only today became curious about the hallmarks. After a (very) little research found that the maker seems to be:
The rose looks to be for the Sheffield assay office after 1975, and the lion for silver.
But I’m really stumped on the last mark. Given the dates for the maker, and my limited reading I’d expected it to be the date mark for somewhere in the period 1975 - 1977 (or even later?) but I can’t see that date letter for sheffield anywhere in the last 50 years in an online list.
So I’m wondering, is a little knowledge a dangerous thing and I’m looking at it all wrong?
Or is it an incorrect, and therefore dubious set of stamps?
The hallmarks clearly indicate Sheffield, 1996, and J.B. Chatterley and Sons. The company is still in business, so there’s no problem with the maker’s mark. The fact that some online references haven’t been updated in many years is not dispositive.
Most of this company’s silver has Birmingham hallmarks although they also used Chester, London and Edinburgh - and of course Sheffield. This 1996 date date for Sheffield can now be added to my Sheffield data.
Note that dates which I give on my site are dates for which I have seen the mark and do not represent absolute working dates.
Thank you for your help with this. You have answered my curiosity about the age of this piece,
I did see the W for 1996, but didn’t think the font matched, as well as being outside of the date range I was focussing on. But then I have never tried to look up hallmakrs before…
Thanks again
Louise
