I found this amazing site while researching a silver covered hinged box and this is my first entry on this Forum so please be gentle! This box is about 3.5" long x 2.5" wide x .75" high. I have been researching the marks for a few days now and am hoping someone can educate me. It appears to have British hallmarks but it is marked “930” which has me confused. From what I have found, Germany and the Netherlands used .930 silver but not the UK?
The marks I think I have identified are the lion passant, lower case “e” in a shield (1900?), capital “F” in an oval (foreign import?) and a leopard head mark (London?). I have not been able to identify the maker - “B & Co LTD”? The mark that looks like three “K’s” in a leaf has me baffled. Not sure what the odd mark to the right of the three K’s is either. The purple tint is from my camera. There is also a series of hallmarks on the lip of the cover - “F”, lion and “e”.
Any information (who, what, where, when, etc,) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!
I think I may have been able to identify the “KKK” mark as belonging to Karl Kurz. So maybe it was imported from Germany? But who is "B & Co. LTD? The distributor perhaps?
KKK is, as you have identified, Karl Kurz of Kesselstadt, Germany. Kurz were the makers of your box which was then imported into Britain. The hallmark is a London import mark with the date letter “e” for the assay year 1900/01, the “F” showing that it is an import (F for Foreign).
The B&CoLtd mark has lost its beginning and should be SB&CoLtd for Singleton, Benda & Co Ltd. This company were described in the registration of their mark as “foreign agents” and their sole business appears to have been importing goods of all types, mainly Chinese and Japanese, but also silver from the Hanau area of Germany.
Thank you for your quick reply! Glad I got most of it right. Didn’t dawn on me that there may be missing letters. I called it a trinket box but is that accurate? What else could it have been used for? Seems too big for a snuff box. Thanks again - Mark
